Vehicle sales rose 2 percent for the first 10 months of the year after registering its highest monthly sales for the year in October.
A joint report of the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc. (Campi) and Truck Manufacturers Association released yesterday shows total vehicle sales reached 34,397 units last month, a growth of 8.1 percent from the 31,820 units sold in September and up 3.8 percent from 33,150 units in October 2018.
Rommel Gutierrez, Campi president, said this is an indication of a continuous market demand for vehicles and a clear upward trend for the industry as it begins the fourth quarter of 2019.
Year-to-date sales totaled 301,761 units from 294,311 units a year ago.
Gutierrez said this growth is a much needed boost to secure the overall target this year.
“The current market demand for vehicles along with creative and aggressive sales promotion efforts give us a positive outlook as we aim to sustain the growth trend for the remaining months of the year,” he said.
He added: “We remain positive that our industry target for the end of the year will be achieved as all brands remain committed to provide innovative mobility solutions to the Filipino people.”
In January to October, passenger car sales were slightly down at 90,400 units from 90,626 units last year.
Sales of commercial vehicles were up 3.8 percent at 211,361 units from 203,685 units last year fuelled by a 12.6 percent increase in the sales of light commercial vehicles to 168,707 units from 149,873 units.
Sales of light trucks rose 4.6 percent to 6,472 units from 6,185 units.
Sales of trucks and buses under Category 4 were down 10 percent to 3,909 units from 4,335 units last year while sales of Category 5 trucks and buses fell 33 percent to 1,145 units from 1,702 units a year ago.
Toyota Motor Philippines Corp. continued to lead all assemblers with sales of 130,520 units, up 5 percent from 124,329 units in 2018 and a market share of 42 percent .
Mitsubishi Motor Philippines followed with 51,515 units but this is 8 percent lower from 56,562 units last year.
Nissan Philippines Inc. rounded up the top three with 36,677 units, an increase of 30 percent from 28,210 units last year.
