April was a positive month for Vietnam’s auto sales, though carmakers have claimed difficulties conducting business in the country's unstable and undeveloped automobile industry.

The month's sales figures released by the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association (VAMA) showed that nearly 18,200 units were sold in the domestic market, marking an increase of 11 percent from March this year and 60 percent from the same period last year.

A total of 9,423 passenger cars and 8,755 commercial vehicles were sold in April. Domestic carmakers assembled 13,980 units, 9 percent higher than the previous month, while 4,198 units were imported, a rise of 19 percent compared with the month before.

The April figures have helped increase the total sale of more than 66,900 units in the first four months of this year, up by 62 percent versus last year.

Of the total sales, VAMA members together sold 16,643 units, 9 percent and 65 percent more than they did in March this year and April last year, respectively. The figures brought the total sales to 57,477 units in the first four months of this year, 68 percent higher than the same period last year.

The Truong Hai Automobile JSC (Thaco) is one of the major automakers to take the lead in the market; with 36.9 percent market share and selling 21,324 cars in the four months, it made a year-on-year gain of 97 percent.

Toyota Motor Vietnam retained its second position with 25.9 percent market share and a growth of 43 percent compared with the same period last year. Ford Vietnam took the third and Honda managed the fourth position with 9.7 percent and 4.2 percent market share, respectively.-VNA