May auto sales down 19%

May sales of locally assembled automobiles in Vietnam fell 19% year-on-year to more than 7.660 units, down by nearly 1,750 units from April, the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (VAMA) reported on Sunday.

Last month, sales of commercial vehicles were down 21% against May of 2010 to just over 4,170 units, while sales of sport utility vehicles (SUV) and multi-purpose vehicles (MPV) were down 31% to 1,282 units.

VAMA reports that sales of passenger cars also decreased 6% to over 2,200 units. With January-May figures combined, however, sales of VAMA members grew 11% year-on-year to 44,996 units thanks to better results at the start of the year.

The passenger car segment was most impressive with sales expanding a hefty 32.9%, while SUV and MPV sales increased 17%. But commercial vehicle sales decreased 4%.

However, last month alone the value of car imports reached US$132 million with 5,500 completely built-up units (CBU) imported.

Since January, the General Statistics Office revealed, the number of CBU cars imported into Vietnam has hit 26,900 with an import value of nearly US$524 million, increasing by 45.7% in quantity and 65.4% in value against the same period last year.

If automobile components for local assembly were included, the total value of automobile imports in the January-May period would reach US$1.34 billion, an increase of 23.7%.

Tags: Vietnam automotive, Vietnam automotive industry, Vietnam autos market, Vietnam car sales

Posted by VBN on Jun 21 2011. Filed under Automotive. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry