MANILA, Philippines — Automotive assemblers saw their highest monthly sales in October since the start of the pandemic, but the figures were still down 27 percent from a year ago as both passenger cars (PC) and commercial vehicles (CV) registered declines.
The joint report of the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc. (CAMPI) and Truck Manufacturers Association Inc. (TMA) showed total vehicle sales reached 25,023 units in October, lower than the 34,397 units sold last year.
CAMPI and TMA sales in October were the highest achieved since March of this year.
PC sales reached 8,988 units in October, down 10.9 percent from the previous year’s 10,083 units.
CV sales posted a bigger drop of 34 percent to 16,035 units from 24,314 units a year ago.
Compared to the total vehicle sales in September which reached 24,523 units, October sales rose two percent.
CAMPI president Rommel Gutierrez said the tepid growth was still a positive development for the automotive industry given the overall negative consumer and business confidence outlook for the fourth quarter.
For the January to October period, combined CAMPI and TMA sales slid 42.7 percent to 173,035 units from 301,761 units last year.
As of end-October, PC sales decreased by 41.3 percent to 53,067 units from the previous year’s 90,400 units.
CV sales were down 43 percent to 119,968 units in the first 10 months from 211,361 units a year ago.
“We are on track to achieve our revised sales forecast of 240,000 units, the baseline for our medium-term recovery plan,” Gutierrez said.
CAMPI remains cautious on its outlook on the automotive industry given the government’s ongoing investigation to determine if a safeguard measure should be imposed on vehicle imports.
Gutierrez said “the industry is in a very vulnerable state right now and the imposition of safeguard measure would only limit our ability to navigate the crisis.”