High fuel prices dampen Hyundai’s first half sales
Hyundai Asia Resources, Inc. (HARI) said on Tuesday that vehicle sales in the first half fell by 8.1 percent as high fuel prices and other seasonal factors dampened demand.
In a statement, HARI said January-June sales fell to 15,957 units from 17,366 units sold in the first six months of last year.
It said that aside from high fuel prices, other factors that affected demand were the depreciation of the peso and higher inflation in the wake of the implementation of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law this year.
“To a certain extent, the TRAIN Law has also played a role as models priced in the middle of the bracket are given a higher excise tax,” HARI said.
It said sales in the passenger cars segment went down by 10 percent to 10,838 units from 12,039 units last year.
The PC segment accounted for more than two-thirds of total Hyundai vehicles sold in the market during the period, it said.
Sales of light commercial vehicles fell 3.9 percent to 5,119 units in the first half from last year’s 5,327 vehicles.
For the second quarter alone, HARI’s sales fell 15.2 percent to 7,226 units from last year’s 8,525 units. Sales of passenger cars dived 23.5 percent from 6,053 units last year to 4,633 vehicles this year.
However, sales of light commercial vehicles rose 4.9 percent to 2,593 units from 2,472 units in 2017.
The company is optimistic that vehicle sales will pick up in the coming months as the market begins to adjust to the effects of the TRAIN law.
“Hyundai’s first semester sales remain consistent with the trend in the industry. Nonetheless, we are confident that we can continue to respond to these challenges…We are expecting greater potential for the rest of the year,” said Ma. Fe Perez-Agudo, HARI president and CEO.
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