The Philippine new vehicle market expanded by 2.3% to 31,820 units in September from 31,116 units in the same month of last year, according to member wholesale data released jointly by the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc (CAMPI) and the Truck Manufacturers Association (TMA).
The data did not include non-affiliated brands such as Hyundai, Chevrolet and Subaru which together accounted for around 12% of the total market last year.
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The vehicle market's moderate rise in September follows a small drop in August with the recovery from last year's sharp decline which followed broad based excise tax increases at the beginning of 2018 seemingly running out of steam. CAMPI data showed sales fell by just over 16% to 357,410 units last year from 425,673 units in 2017.
Sales in the first nine months of 2019 were just 2.4% higher at 267,364 units from 261,161 units in the same period of last year. Passenger car sales were 1.1% lower at 80,317 units in this period while commercial vehicle sales increased by 3.9% to 187,047 units.
Toyota claimed a 42.68% share of the vehicle market in the nine month period, followed by Mitsubishi Motors with 17.21%, Nissan 12.34%, Suzuki 6.52% and Ford 6.13%.
CAMPI president Rommel Gutierrez said he expected the market to perform positively in the fourth quarter with full year sales expected to show a moderate increase – helped also by recent interest rate cuts.
Earlier this month Toyota Motor Philippines said it expected vehicle output at its Laguna plant to rise by 22% to almost 54,000 units in 2019 from 44,000 units in 2018, reflecting stronger domestic demand.
