Vehicle sales defy calamities, rise 1.3%

Despite the string of typhoons that visited the country in the last two months, sales of new cars continue to rise by 1.3 percent to 106,146 units from January to October from 104,757 units in the same period last year.

Vehicle sales for October also reached 12,761 units or 12.9 percent more from 11,304 units in September.

Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc. (Campi) president Elizabeth Lee, in a statement, said based on the current sales curve, the industry is likely to hit its minimum target of selling 125,000 units for this year.

To help buyers purchase their vehicles, Lee said auto players have aggressively offered a wider product line coupled with low cost financing packages. “The goal was to sustain sales, preventing it from dipping into negative territory.”

When typhoon “Ondoy” hit the country toward the end of September, thousands of vehicles were swamped by heavy flooding, and another similar event was experienced when typhoon “Pepeng” hit northern Luzon in October.

Despite all these, the country’s auto industry has done fairly well when compared to its Asean neighbors where sales for countries like Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, showed a double-digit decline.

The local industry, however, still needs to catch up with its neighbors in terms of overall volume, Lee added. –Ayen Infante, Daily Tribune