The Philippines auto sales report of 2018 June shows a 4% decline

MANILA: The Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc. (CAMPI) and the Truck Manufacturers Association (TMA) have released the auto sales report of June 2018 which states that the sales have gone downhill. One of the reasons could be a change in consumer buying behaviour.

The report shows a decline of 4% in the total auto sales in June 2018. A total of 29,395 units were sold this month which is 1,225 fewer when compared to the that of the previous month in which 30,620 vehicles were sold.

Speaking about the decline in auto sales, Atty. Rommel Guttierez, president of CAMPI, said, “This decline was largely due to consumers’ prioritization of buying basic goods and services as buying big-ticket items like motor vehicles is less favourable at this time due to rising inflation, which increased to 5.2% this June 2018. This is a typical consumer’s behaviour pattern when economic condition is a bit gloomy due to less favourable economic indicators.”

The Passenger Cars (PC) segment suffered a decline of 16.4% and sold only a total of 7,766 units that covers 26.42% of the total market share. On the other hand, the Commercial Vehicle (CV) segment didn’t report a huge growth but still managed to keep the sales figure at a decent high by moving up a pace by 1.7% and selling 21,584 units. This segment has a huge chunk of the total market share at 73.58%.

Light Commercial Vehicles (LCV), a sub-segment of CV, reported a growth of 0.6% in sales when compared to that of the last month. APV/MPV also saw a growth of 9.9%. The sales of heavy vehicles like trucks, buses, etc., took a major hit.

The top three brands which reported a huge decline in their sales figure include Kia (30.3%), VW (30.1%), and Toyota (21%). Even in such market conditions, the top three brands that have reported a growth in their sales include Mitsubishi - 90.5%, Isuzu - 51.2%, Nissan - 26.1%.

Irrespective to the sales figure of June, the top five performing brands based on the market share of this month are Toyota (38.85%), Mitsubishi (22.54%), Nissan (9.37%), Ford (7.2%), and Honda (7.02%).