According to statisticsreleased by the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association (VAMA),total automobile sales in July reached 12,609 units, up 35 percenton-year and 2 percent on-month. In the first seven months of the year,77,998 cars were sold, a rise of 32 percent when compared to the sameperiod in 2013.
Leading market analysts are saying the automobilemarket is continuing to rapidly expand and point to the July salesfigures as demonstrable evidence.
Specifically, Ford Vietnamreported an increase in sales of 91 percent on-month to 1,307 units inJuly and obtained its highest market share since appearing in Vietnam.Its sales increase helped push its market share to 10.4 percent, up 3.1percent.
Jesus Metelo Arias, Ford Vietnam Director General,attributes the achievement to increased sales of the Ranger and Transitmodels which hit a record high and a new model, the EcoSport, whichfirst appeared on the market in June.
Toyota Vietnam also enjoyedimpressive growth, selling 20,412 units in the first seven months ofthe year. In July alone the company sold 3,759 units with 1,101 of thosetraceable to sales of its latest model, the Vios, which first appearedon the market 4 months ago. Sales of the Vios were 1,101 units and 3,700in the past four months.
Thaco’s sales, in contrast, declined slightly in July. It sold just 3,232 cars in July, 200 units lower than previous month.
AThaco representative revealed, however, that the company had unfilledorders at the end of the month of 500 units. If the sales of the 500had been consummated then their sales volume would not have decreased.
Inaddition to the top three carmakers, a significant number of the 15other VAMA members achieved high growth including Mercedes-Benz Vietnam,Isuzu, Vinamotor, VEAM and SAMCO.
The sales of Ford Vietnam shotup 60 percent to 6,571 cars and market shares jumped from 6.9 percentto 8.4 percent in the first seven months of the year.
VOV quotedJesus Metelo Arias as saying that Ford will continue to expandproduction in Vietnam and introduce more new models to Vietnamesecustomers, adding his company will also bring about the best services tocustomers.
Like Ford, many other automakers are bullish on theVietnamese marketplace and optimistically see nothing but bright spotson the horizon. They are committed to the market with plans to increaseinvestment in all areas of the Southeast Asian nation.
Recently,Mitsubushi Motors announced its decision to shift its operations andjump into the Vietnamese market head-on. The company is focusing onVietnam targeting this year’s sales of 3,000 units and a whopping 10,000cars in 2018.
Kazuhiro Yamana, Vinastar Director General, saysthe Mitshubishi Motors brand name is popular and trusted by Vietnamesecustomers. Vietnam is a market with a great potential, he said addingthat the company is investing heavily and has placed high hopes for themarket.
Toyota Vietnam Director General Yoshihisa Maruta says theautomobile industry has developed stably thanks to the Government’sopen door policies and sustained efforts to stabilise the macro-economyand reducing taxes.
Macroeconomic stabilisation will spur marketdemand and in accordance with normal market rules, sales turnover in thesecond half of the year is often higher than that in the first half,Maruta said.
Based on current market trends, Yoshihisa predicts that this year’s sales will be a record high, greatly outpacing last year.
Meanwhile,VAMA’s is forecasting a rosy year for domestic automakers, projectingthis year’s sales turnover may jump up 10 percent to 130,000 units overlast year.-VNA