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Imported cars prove difficult to sell
Despite discounts and other promotions, auto showrooms are finding it difficult to find customers for their imported cars. Although the number of imported cars has dropped, owners of these shops reveal that those already imported have been unsold since late 2009.
"The door for imported cars has been narrowed," said the Director of a big importing company in HCM City. The importer, who declined to be named, revealed that he sold only two imported cars in April, compared with 30 to 40 in the same period last year.
He said with 130 imported cars currently in stock, he had to pay VND2.7 billion a month in interest on bank loans.
If the current critical situation remained unchanged, 50 per cent of car importers like his company would face bankrupcy, he said.
Pham Huu Tam, Director of the Tradoco Auto Shop in HCM City's Binh Chanh District, said the company had been selling three cars per month of late, a tenth of the number sold per month in the same period last year.
Online newswire VnExpress also quoted the owner of an auto salon in Ha Noi as saying that customers were having much better choices when purchasing cars as there were so many unsold imported cars. He said that tightened credit and the global economic turmoil were major reasons behind the current critical stuation in the imported auto market.
Most auto shop owners believe that the local market for imported cars would remain sluggish for the next quarter and the acute competition can result in the bankrupcy of 30 to 50 per cent of car importers.
According to the General Department of Customs, some 5,800 cars were imported to Viet Nam in February and March 2010, less than half the same period last year.
It has categorised cars in the list of goods which need import restrictions and the Finance Ministry has revealed plans to raise the registration fee on imported cars to 15 per cent.
Meanwhile, in April this year, 9,551 cars made in Viet Nam were sold in the local market, a year-on-year increase of 23 per cent, according to the Viet Nam Auto Manufacturers' Association (VAMA).
However, in the first four months of 2010, VAMA members attained a growth rate of just 5 per cent compared with the same period last year.
Le Hung Vong
vietnamnews
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