Car Sales Fall 30 per cent in Vietnam in February

Car Sales Fall 30 per cent in Vietnam in February

Auto sales by foreign-led manufacturers in Vietnam dropped 30 per cent year on year and 41 per cent month on month to 1,397 units in February, according to the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association (VAMA).

The figure brought the total sales in the first two months of this year to 3,767, slightly higher than the correspondent period last year, at 3,389 units.

The sales fall last month was attributed to the rise in the special consumption tax on passenger cars with less than five seats, from 24 per cent to 40 per cent since the beginning of this year. The January sales increase, meanwhile, came from deliveries to consumers who paid deposits on new cars late last year in order to avoid the tax rise.

In February, Toyota still led the market with total sales of 526 units, down 26 per cent on month, holding 37.7 per cent of the market share. GM-Daewoo Auto Co. (Vidamco) and Ford followed with 206 units and 180 units, respectively. Visuco secured the fourth place with 165 units sold, holding 11.8 per cent of the market share.

Mekong enjoyed the highest sales growth at 110 per cent or 77 cars sold in the month, which represented 5.5 per cent of the market share. Last year, it bottomed the list with only seven units sold.

Vindaco sold the least with only 12 units in the month.

Also according to VAMA, eleven foreign-invested automobile manufacturers in Vietnam sold 40,138 automobiles in 2004, down 6 per cent against the earlier year.

* The following table details car sales and market shares of the 11 foreign-invested carmakers in Vietnam in February:

(VAMA Figure Release February 2005)