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Automobile market recovering
The automobile market has shown signs of recovery as the number of cars sold by member companies of the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (VAMA) in May increased by 13 percent over the previous month.
The 13 percent increase in car sales in May is considered an encouraging result. VAMA’s member companies sold 8,761 cars in May 2009, an increase of 1,050 cars in comparison with April 2009.
The most noteworthy thing is that sales of passenger cars in May soared by 28 percent over the same period of 2008 with 2,496 cars sold.
May witnessed the recovery in the sales of products of several brand names. In April, Mercedes Benz was the only brand name which saw a plus (+) growth rate in sales, while there were two more manufacturers and distributors that saw plus growth rates in May, namely VMC and Samco.
In general, only two automobile manufacturers saw good growth in the first five months of the year: Mercedes Benz, which had the growth rate of 40 percent with 1,259 cars sold, and VMC, which had the growth rate of 49 percent with 389 cars sold.
However, Vietnam’s automobile market remains quiet. The only thing that consoles car manufacturers and traders is that the plunge in car sales has slowed down.
In May 2009, VAMA’s member companies’ car sales still decreased by 24 percent in comparison with the same period of last year (the figure was 42 percent in April). The sales of SUV/MPV dropped most dramatically by 46 percent with only 1,485 cars sold. The sales of commercial vehicles dropped by 28 percent with only 4,780 cars sold.
Mekong led the market in falling sales with sales of Fiat, Ssangyong and PMC decreasing by 75 percent, followed by Visuco with the sales of Suzuki down by 63 percent. Other famous car brand names also saw sales drop: Honda down by 56 percent, Toyota 14 percent, Ford 2 percent, VInastar 25 percent with Mitsubishi sales and GM Daewoo by 38 percent.
Pham Huyen
vietnamnet
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