Vehicle sales will rebound 10 percent next year from a double-digit slump this year, two industry groups said Tuesday.
The Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc. and the Truck Manufacturers Association said combined sales were expected to rise 10 percent in 2019, after a yearlong downtrend in 2018 when total sales were estimated to decline 14 percent year-on-year.
“We are positive next year. We will project better figure next year and that will be 10-percent increase in sales industry-wide,” said Campi president Rommel Gutierrez.
Gutierrez said the projected growth next year would be a result of the industry’s adjustment with higher automotive excise tax. He said that after a year of dealing with the higher tax, “the industry must have adjusted to it.”
He said that aside from the higher tax that affected industry sales in 2018, the advanced purchases in December 2017 also made a dent in sales this year. The industry sold 45,494 vehicles in December 2017, up 33.4 percent from 34,104 units in the same month in 2016, as consumers bought vehicles earlier to avoid the higher tax rates under the Tax Reform Acceleration and Inclusion law which was implemented at the start of 2018.
The group earlier predicted a flat growth in 2018 at the start of the year, but sales began dipping at a double-digit rate in the succeeding months.
Gutierrez said the onset of the new tax regime was expected to pull sales down to flat growth, but actual figures showed more than 10-percent decline this year.
Data showed that as of September 2018, automotive sales plunged 13.8 percent to 261,057 units from 302,869 units delivered in the same period last year.
This followed an 18.4-percent growth in Campi and TMA sales to a record 425,673 units in 2017. Another industry group, the Association Vehicle Importers and Distributors, also reported a 14-percent increase in sales last year. Total industry sales were estimated at 476,000 in 2017.
“Despite an overall decline [this year], sales are showing positive signs starting the ‘ber’ months. We hope this will further improve as we close the year,” Gutierrez said.
Automotive sales breached the 1000,000 unit sales mark in 2010, followed by continuous growth until 2017.
“It took us so many years to hit growth. After that, we’ve been posting higher sales every single year,” said Gutierrez.