Vietnam’s car sales surge 31 percent in June

Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnamese people bought more than 24,400 cars in June, an increase of 31 percent compared with the same period last year, the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers’ Association said.

Passenger cars were the market leaders with sales of 12,916 units, following by commercial cars with 10,325 units and special-purpose vehicles with 1,180 units.

In the first half of this year, nearly 126,800 cars were sold, a 31 percent year-on-year increase. On average, about 700 cars were bought each day.

Truong Hai Automobile Joint-Stock Company (Thaco) continued to monopolise the market last month, with sales of 9,246 units, claiming 42.3 percent of the market share.

Thaco said it produced 51,000 cars in the first half of this year and developed 11 new models of buses, tour cars and trucks.

Thaco plans to design a new bus under the national brand later this year as a Vietnamese brand promotion strategy in the ASEAN Economic Community and Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Two truck and bus manufacturing plants will be built later this year, with a capacity of producing 16,000 buses and 100,000 trucks per year, while the production capacity of the Kia Thaco plant will be raised from 28,000 to 30,000 cars, and of Vina Mazda to 30,000 vehicles.

Thaco’s sales were more than double of Toyota Motor Vietnam (TMV), which ranked second with sales of 3,979 units, claiming 18.2 percent of the market share.

These were followed by Ford Vietnam, Honda, GM Vietnam and Mercedes-Benz Vietnam with sales of 2,369 units, 869 units, 765 units and 655 units, respectively.

The top five best-selling cars in the first half of this year were Ford Ranger, Toyota Vios, Toyota Fortuner and Toyota Innova, besides Mazda.

The market prices of many models with engine displacement between 1,500cc and 2,500cc were sharply cut.

TMV cut the price of Corrola Altis models by 48-59 million VND (2,147-2,600 USD) each, with the prices now ranging from 747 million VND to 933 million VND.

Other Toyota models the prices of which were cut were Yaris, Vios and Hiace. Meanwhile, the firm raised the prices of Fortuner models by between 32 million VND and 38 million VND to reach 1.04 billion VND and 1.23 billion VND. The price of Land Cruiser VX increased by 870 million VND to touch 3.72 billion VND.

A small survey conducted by online newspaper Vietnamnet.vn showed that agents cut the prices of many models in the sedan segment.

An auto sales person in Hanoi, who wanted to remain anonymous, said the prices of models with engine displacement of 1,500cc to 2,500cc had been reduced. The agent did not make any profit, but still accepted the low price to close its revenue account for the first half of this year.

Meanwhile, a representative of an FDI auto firm said the price cut was being implemented only by agents. They accepted cut in profits to increase revenue and hoped to receive a cash bonus from the automakers.

Agents said they had to reduce the prices of many models because there was fierce competition among companies to claim and maintain market shares.

Some businesses have announced price cuts. Meanwhile, some others do not cut the price themselves, but give the ‘green light’ to agents to cut prices, while promising to give them cash bonuses in return for increased revenue.

Motorcycle sales up

Five major motorbike manufacturers sold more than 1.44 million motorbikes for the first six months of the year, an increase of 8 percent compared to the same period last year, according to the Vietnam Association of Motorcycle Manufacturers (VAMM).

VAMM includes five members, Honda Vietnam Co Ltd, Piaggio Vietnam Co Ltd, Vietnam Suzuki Corporation, SYM Vietnam Company and Yamaha Motor Vietnam Co Ltd.

VAMM’s figures released in a report on July 11 did not include export sales or market share of each auto manufacturer.

The five manufactures provide a wide range of products, including scooters, cubs and clutch gear motorbikes.

Last year, total sales volume of the five members reached more than 2.84 million units.-VNA