Car sales rise 2.3% in Sept
Credit to Author: ANNA LEAH E. GONZALES| Date: Tue, 15 Oct 2019 16:29:31 +0000
SALES of automobiles picked up in September, growing by 2.3 percent on the back of increased demand, two industry groups reported on Tuesday.
In a joint report, the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines (Campi) and the Truck Manufacturers Association said 31,820 units were sold last month, compared with 31,116 a year ago.
Sales of commercial vehicles (CV), which accounted for 69.45 percent of September sales, increased by 2 percent to 22,099 units from 21,675 year-on-year.
Sales of passenger cars (PC), meanwhile, rose by 3 percent to 9,721 units from the year-earlier 9,441.
In a statement, Campi President Rommel Gutierrez welcomed the “positive growth, as this is a good indicator of the increasing and widening demand for vehicles that has been the trademark of our industry.”
He said his organization had “expected this recovery coming into the last quarter of the year,” noting that “September is traditionally the start of an upward trend in sales as the public begin to spend for the upcoming holiday season.”
“We are optimistic that the industry is well-positioned [to] get back on track toward strong positive growth in the coming months,” he added.
Toyota Motors Philippines Corp. was last month’s market leader, capturing a 42.30-percent market share after selling 13,460 units, a 6.1-percent increase from last year’s 12,686.
Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corp. came second with a 15.53-percent share, selling 4,973 units, down 21.1 percent from 6,305 last year.
Nissan Philippines Inc. was third with a 14.98-percent share, selling 4,768 units, up 21.8 percent from the previous year’s 3,916.
Year-to-date, the number of cars sold climbed by 2.38 percent to 267,364 from 261,161 on the back of higher CV sales.
Toyota recorded a market share of 42.68 percent in the nine-month period after selling 114,117 units, up 4.3 percent from the year-ago 109,402.
Mitsubishi came next with a 17.21-percent market share, selling 46,007 units, down 9.1 percent from the figure posted in the same period last year.
Nissan came third with a 12.34-percent share, selling 32,980 units, a 34.6-percent increase from the figure in the same period last year.
With continued demand for CV and PC propping up the industry, Gutierrez said Campi remained optimistic that the sector would continue to record growth until the end of the year.