Vehicle production in the Philippines rose 19 percent in 2019 to 95,094 units from 79,763 units in 2018, the second to the lowest volume in the six automotive-producing countries in Southeast Asia, data from the Asean Automotive Federation.
This level approximates 2015 production of 98,768 units but is still far from the record production of 141,252 units in 2017.
Sales in 2019 reached 369,941 units, up 3.5 percent from 357,410 units in 2018, the fourth largest market in the region.
The Philippines accounts for just 11 percent of total region-wide sales of 3.46 million, down 3 percent from 2018.
Thailand, the hub of assembly in the region, remains the biggest producer of motor vehicles with 2 million units in 2019.
That is about half of total production of Asean of 4.16 million units.
Thailand was followed closely by Indonesia with 1.28 million units.
In terms of sales, Thailand and Indonesia sold a million units each last year.
The share of locally produced vehicles has been shrinking over the years.
This has become the basis of the Philippine Metalworkers Association (PMA) in its petition for the imposition of safeguard duties on motor vehicles imported as completely built-up (CBU).
Data presented by PMA showed that the volume of imported CBU cars grew from only 153,000 units in 2014 to 270,000 units in 2018. Total importation for the period 2014-2018 reached more than a million units.
These imported brand new CBU packs are mostly under HS Code 8703, or a tariff line for passenger cars. Major sources of imported CBUs are Thailand, Indonesia, Korea, Japan, India, US, China, Germany, Belgium, Malaysia, among others.
Thailand exported more than 428,000 units followed by Indonesia with 312,000 units and Korea with more than 100,000 units. Together these three countries account for more than 80 percent of total importation within the five-year period covered in the safeguard measure investigation.
CBU car imports from ASEAN are also at zero duty, while Korea is still at 5 percent. Under the Philippines-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement, CBU car imports from Japan with more than 3-liter engine displacement and vehicles with 10 seats and above are already at zero duty. But other vehicles are slapped with 20 percent duty.
