Automobile sales down 42% on chip shortage

Illustrative photo (Source: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) - The Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (VAMA) has announced that its members sold 25,159 vehicles in June, down 42% from May ending three consecutive months of gains.

Businesses attributed the decrease to the global semiconductor crisis and the lack of chips, as well as the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The figure included 17,826 passenger cars, down 49%; 6,821 commercial vehicles, down 14%, and 512 special-purpose vehicles, plunging 24% month-on-month.

Of the sold units, 11,044 were domestically assembled cars, a drop of 57%, while the other 14,115 were imported, down 23% from the previous month.

During the first half of this year, VAMA members sold 201,840 units, rising 34% year-on-year. Sales of passenger cars surged 50% to 157,935, while those of commercial vehicles were down 5% to 40,498, and special-purpose vehicles up 12% to 3,407.

Among non-VAMA members, TC Motor supplied 36,397 vehicles to the market. Its factory in the northern province of Ninh Binh only managed to meet a fraction of demand, while VinFast sold 14,695 automobiles in the six months, it said.

Toyota Vietnam topped the list of sellers in June with 5,179 units. It was followed by TC Group, Mitsubishi Vietnam, Ford Vietnam, Thaco Mazda and Honda Vietnam.

Between January and June, the country imported over 63,730 CBU cars worth some 1.6 billion USD, down 21.4% in volume and 14.4% in value year-on-year, according to data from the General Department of Vietnam Customs./.

VNA