Industry raises goal after car sales increase in May

The local auto industry has jacked up its growth target following robust sales during the first five months of the year.

Elizabeth Lee, Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc. (Campi) president, said on Tuesday that the group expects this year’s sales to reach 147,000 units, 11 percent higher than the 132,444 units sold last year. About 96,000 of these are commercial vehicles and 51,000, passenger cars.

This is an upward adjustment of Campi’s earlier sales growth projection of 4 percent this year.

In a joint report with the Truck Manufacturers Association, Campi said sales at end-May stood at 66,958 units, 36.6 percent higher than the 49,001 units sold during the same five-month period last year.

“The industry is quite positive with the sales results thus far, and is looking forward to sustained growth in the coming months. Factors that will continue to bolster vehicle sales include aggressive financing packages, remittances that spur consumption, as well as the positive effect of the relatively successful automated elections that helped boost both consumer and business confidence,” Lee said.

For May alone, the industry sold less vehicles at 13,995 units compared with 14,254 units in April. But Lee said the month-on-month decline “hardly made a dent on the strong momentum of vehicle sales seen for the year 2010.”

“We continue to expect relatively robust sales for the year, with supply trying to keep up with the rising demand,” she said.

The executive said the strong demand has outpaced supply, which caused sales of commercial vehicles last month to dip 7.1 percent from April.

“The stronger-than-expected growth of 40.5 percent for the [commercial vehicle] segment resulted in shortage of supply for some models. [But] supply is trying to keep up with the demand,” Lee said.

Campi data showed that the May sales of both Asian utility vehicles and light commercial vehicles—such as compact sport utility vehicles, pickup trucks and vans—declined from the previous month because of stock-outs.

Year-to-date sales of light trucks were also down 17.1 percent because of low demand and delayed arrival of units.

Sales of trucks and buses have declined 11.7 percent month-on-month and 19.6 percent year-on-year because of the stock-outs, Campi said.

Passenger car sales continued to rise, growing 29.8-percent year-on-year and 9-percent month-on-month.

Campi said this improvement can be attributed to the availability of fast moving models, strong marketing campaigns and newly launched models. –BEN ARNOLD O. DE VERA Reporter, Manila Times