Vehicle sales opened 2019 with a 15-percent drop in January, following the 16-percent slump in 2018, data from the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc. and the Truck Manufacturers Association Inc. show.
The two industry groups said their members sold 26,888 vehicles in January, down by 15 percent from 31,645 units delivered in the same month in 2018.
Combined sales of Campi and TMA members fell 16 percent last year to 357,410 vehicles from 425,673 units in 2017. Including the sales of the Association of Vehicle Importers and Distributors, total industry sales went down 15.2 percent to 401,803 units in 2018 from a record 473,943 units in 2017, following the implementation of higher excise taxes on fuel and vehicles.
Both passenger and commercial car sales suffered slower sales in January. Sales of passenger cars dropped 13.3 percent to 8,487 units from 9,790 units a year ago while sales of commercial vehicles declined 15.8 percent to 18,401 units from 21,855 units.
Among the commercial vehicles, only light trucks and category IV buses and trucks performed positively with 32.6 percent and 11 percent growth, respectively.
Sales of Asian utility vehicles, light commercial vehicles, category V buses, and trucks declined 58.5 percent, 1.2 percent and 22 percent, respectively.
Data show that on a month-on-month basis, January sales went down 15.8 percent from 31,945 units in December.
Passenger car sales dipped 8.75 percent from 9,301 units in December while commercial vehicles sales decreased 18.7 percent from 22,644 units.
Toyota Motor Philippines remained the industry leader with sales of 11,365 units and a market share of 42.23 percent in January. Mitsubishi Motor Phils. Corp. was the second biggest player with 5,239 units sold and a market share of 19.48 percent.
Other biggest sellers were Nissan Philippines Inc. with a market share of 11.53 percent, Honda Cars Philippines Corp. with 7.23 market and Ford Motor Philippines Inc. with 6.6 percent.
The automotive industry earlier forecast that sales would rebound by at least 10 percent in 2019.
