Car output in Vietnam continued to increase by 19.6 per cent on-year in December to 8,033 units, earmarking all-year-round monthly rise in car production in 2005, according to the government’s General Statistics Office (GSO).
The country’s automotive industry turned out 64,675 automobiles in the whole year, representing a year-on-year increase of 31.1 per cent, said the GSO. Last year, the industry produced 44,760 automobiles.
An authority in the ministry for the industry said, “The rise in car output resulted from the wide expansion of local carmakers, which mainly manufacture buses and trucks.”
Furthermore, the new taxation policy, which will be raised by 10 per cent on locally made sedans and lowered by 30 per cent on imported ones, has not been applied to buses and trucks, he said. As a result the demand for these vehicles is still growing.
On the upside, the demand for sedans is at the lowest level in the year, he said, as car hunters are waiting for a fall in prices in 2006.
According to the GSO, foreign-invested firms, which mainly manufacture sedans, were unique to suffer December production falls by 26.4 per cent on year to 4,073 units. However, their yearly production output was still up 4.7 per cent to 38,353 units against 2004.
The State-run sector witnessed a marvelous 319.3 per cent increase in production to 3,447 units in December. Its annual production output also rose 109.4 per cent to 14,426 units, said the GSO.
The private sector made 513 autos in December and 6,823 units in the whole year, up 83.2 per cent and 375.1 per cent on year, respectively.
With a fledging auto industry, all carmakers in the country have to import parts for production. They spent around US$800 million worth of car parts in 2005.
T.V
Vietnamese
