Vietnam CBU automobile import +88% to $103Mln in Jan

Vietnam imported $103 million worth of 6,117 complete built unit (CBU) automobiles in January, sharply rising 88% on-year for value and 80% for quantity,

Vietnam imported $103 million worth of 6,117 complete built unit (CBU) automobiles in January, sharply rising 88% on-year for value and 80% for quantity, online newspaper VnMedia reported on February 22, citing the Vietnam Customs.

The import value was lower than the estimation of the General Statistics of Vietnam (GSO) with $107.6 million worth of 6,000 CBU(rising 95.3% on-year for value and 76.5% for quantity).

Vietnam imported cars in January mainly from Korea ( 3,000 units), Japan (740 units), the US and Taiwan ( 560 units) and Thailand and China(300 units).

The surge was attributed to the fact that car importers boosted importing car to avoid the new tax on imported car despite still low domestic demand.

The prices of imported cars will rise between $500-$1,000 per unit after the new tax policy become effective from January 29, according to the Vietnam Customs source.

The imported CBU automobiles will drop in February and March as the higher USD/VND exchange rate and no extraordinary demand.

Meanwhile, the imported automobile kit dropped by 14% on month and 6% on year to $165 million.

Last year, Vietnam’s imported CBU automobile fell 33.2% from 2009 to 53,841 units worth $978.5 million.

Meanwhile, the country cut the imported CBU motorbike to 10,000 motorbikes worth $14 million, down 17.4% for quantity but up 3.3% for value on year. – Stoxplus.com

Tags: Vietnam CBU automobile imports