Auto sales down by 8.5% in Q1 2018

MANILA -- Motor vehicle sales declined by 8.5 percent in the first quarter of 2018 with only 86,037 units sold from 94,026 units during the same period last year according to the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines, Inc. (CAMPI) and Truck Manufacturers Association (TMA).

Total vehicle sales in March 2018 alone fell by 22.8 percent to 28,216 units this year from 36,561 units in the same month last year, the industry groups further revealed. Sales of passenger car and commercial vehicle segments both declined last month.

Passenger cars sold 10,925 units in March 2018, is lower by 7.8 percent from 11,853 units in March 2017. Likewise, sales of commercial vehicles dropped 30 percent to 17,291 units last month from 24,708 units in March of the previous year.

Sales of Asian utility vehicles (AUVs) and light commercial vehicles (LCVs) both registered double-digit decrements of 43.7 percent and 25.2 percent, respectively, with unit sales declined to 3,899 for AUVs and 12,171 for LCVs.

In truck segment, trucks and buses categories four and five posted increments while light trucks declined its sales by 38.1 percent to 628 units last month from 1,014 units in March 2017.

Sales of trucks and buses category four increased by 15.1 percent to 420 units in March 2018 from 365 units in the same month of the previous year.

Likewise, trucks and buses category five sales rose 26.3 percent to 173 units last month from 137 units sold a year ago.

It was in February that the auto manufacturers registered its first decrement in sales this year as the market is adjusting to the new tax reform program rolled out at the start of the year, according to CAMPI President Rommel Gutierrez.PNA