The struggling Vietnam car making industry is already turning toimporting vehicles well before the country joins the ASEAN Free TradeArea (AFTA) in 2018.
A report from the VietnamAutomobile Manufacturers' Association (VAMA) showed that its memberssold 92,000 units in 2012, a fall of 33 percent compared with 2011.
When the presently high taxes dropped to zero in 2018, cars from ASEAN countries are expected to flood into Vietnam.
Toyota Motor Vietnam (TMV) will display Lexus cars from Japan at theVietnam Motor Show to be held in Ho Chi Minh City in October. HondaVietnam also plans to sell imported cars.
Accordingto Honda Vietnam's sales manager, Tomohiro Maruto, after three months oflaunching the model, the company has received more than 1,600 ordersbut delivered only about 300 units. It has raised production capacity to600 units a year, but this is still not enough. The company also plansto import the Accord model by the end of this year.
Mitsubishi, whose strong position in four-wheel-drive vehicles, willalso display two small sedans for women motorists at the motor show inHo Chi Minh City.
And Ford Vietnam has recently started to import the pick-up Ranger from Thailand.
According to the Vietnam Customs, more than 23,000 completely-builtunits have been imported to Vietnam so far this year, a 22.5 percentincrease compared with the same period last year. Of these, 11,100 werecars and 10,000 heavy vehicles.
Deputy Director of Vinastar, Kiyoshi Teshima, said Mitsubishi had been assembling cars and selling imported ones.
At present, most cars from ASEAN sold in Vietnam come from Thailandand Indonesia. In the future, cars imported from the Republic of Korea,China and Japan are expected to increase strongly.
Although the three countries are not members of ASEAN, the regionalgroup will reduce their import taxes to 5 percent by 2018.
Many car makers in Vietnam said that price cuts were necessary becausethe import tax on spare parts in Vietnam was high while it does notexist in Thailand and Indonesia.
They said to lower prices, they needed more locally-made spare parts, but the country's support industry was still weak.-VNA
A report from the VietnamAutomobile Manufacturers' Association (VAMA) showed that its memberssold 92,000 units in 2012, a fall of 33 percent compared with 2011.
When the presently high taxes dropped to zero in 2018, cars from ASEAN countries are expected to flood into Vietnam.
Toyota Motor Vietnam (TMV) will display Lexus cars from Japan at theVietnam Motor Show to be held in Ho Chi Minh City in October. HondaVietnam also plans to sell imported cars.
Accordingto Honda Vietnam's sales manager, Tomohiro Maruto, after three months oflaunching the model, the company has received more than 1,600 ordersbut delivered only about 300 units. It has raised production capacity to600 units a year, but this is still not enough. The company also plansto import the Accord model by the end of this year.
Mitsubishi, whose strong position in four-wheel-drive vehicles, willalso display two small sedans for women motorists at the motor show inHo Chi Minh City.
And Ford Vietnam has recently started to import the pick-up Ranger from Thailand.
According to the Vietnam Customs, more than 23,000 completely-builtunits have been imported to Vietnam so far this year, a 22.5 percentincrease compared with the same period last year. Of these, 11,100 werecars and 10,000 heavy vehicles.
Deputy Director of Vinastar, Kiyoshi Teshima, said Mitsubishi had been assembling cars and selling imported ones.
At present, most cars from ASEAN sold in Vietnam come from Thailandand Indonesia. In the future, cars imported from the Republic of Korea,China and Japan are expected to increase strongly.
Although the three countries are not members of ASEAN, the regionalgroup will reduce their import taxes to 5 percent by 2018.
Many car makers in Vietnam said that price cuts were necessary becausethe import tax on spare parts in Vietnam was high while it does notexist in Thailand and Indonesia.
They said to lower prices, they needed more locally-made spare parts, but the country's support industry was still weak.-VNA
