Automobile joint ventures in Vietnam posted sales of 19,214 units in the first seven months of this year, up 21% over the same period last year, according to the People’s Daily Online.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
The Xinhua news agency story said the 11 joint ventures sold 6,663 automobiles with 6-15 seats each, up 37%, and 2,940 buses and trucks, up 12%, according to the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association (VAMA).
Growth in bus and truck sales will slow down, since demand for the vehicles in big cities is near saturation, many local traders predicted.
Automakers in the country are launching more vehicles with 7-8 seats, which are suitable to demand of families or enterprises, the traders said.
In the seven-month period, Vietnam spent $US607 million importing automobiles, and their components and spare parts, posting a year-on-year surge of 43.4%. Specifically, it imported 12,000 completely built automobiles worth $172 million, down 4.2% in volume but up 5.7% in value.
Under a strategy to develop Vietnam’s automobile industry to 2010 approved by the government in late 2002, the country will encourage all economic sectors to produce components, especially those of engines, on large scale. Projects on manufacturing common- and special-use vehicles like buses, light lorries, tank trucks and ambulances are to enjoy incentives in terms of land, loan, technology transfer, and research and development.
Vietnam has so far this year licensed two automobile projects: a $60 million project with annual capacity of 10,000 units for Honda Vietnam, and a $70 million project with annual capacity of 15,000 trucks and buses for a Malaysia-Vietnam joint venture.
The country now has 13 automobile joint ventures with total registered capital of nearly $700 million and combined annual capacity of 173,000 units, the VAMA said.
