Imported cars increase, domestic car production declines

	Auto market filled with gloom despite falling prices
	Vietnam imports 120,000 cars in ten months

Mazda 3 has just been launched inthe market. Photo NguyễnHà

Domestic car production gradually falls

The latest report of the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association (VAMA) showed that more than 28,900 cars were sold in Vietnam in October, an increase of only 4.3% compared to September. Ofwhich, over 70% are passenger cars with fewerthan 9 seats, with 21,355 cars, an increase of 2% compared to the previous month; the remaining are 7,228 commercial vehicles, up 11% and 365 specialized vehicles, up 14%.

Generally, in the firstten months of 2019, VAMA’s members consumed a total of 259,282 vehicles of all kinds, an increase of 16% compared to the same period last year. In particular, tourist cars reached 190,049, up 26%; commercial vehicles reached 64,751, down 2%; tourist cars were4,482, down 27% compared to the same period last year.

In October 2019, passenger carsincreased rapidly (over 26%)and other vehicles decreased compared to the same period last year.

If we have a more detailed analysis, we will find a worrying trend for domestic assembly production. In October, sales of locally assembled vehicles continued to decline, there were only 16,406 units sold to the market, down 3% compared to the previous month. Meanwhile, the volume of imported cars was 12,542 units, up 16% compared tothe previous month.

There are many new models of imported cars flooding the Vietnamese market. Photo Nguyen Ha

This is the third month that sales of domestically-assembled vehicles decreased (12% compared to the same period last year), while imported cars increased by 118% over the same period last year.

At the end of October 2019, 153,100 domestic assembled cars were sold, down 21,600 units compared to the same period last year,while imported cars sold more than 106,000 units, an increase of 57,400 units compared to the same period last year.

This is a fact that was predicted because imported cars were no longer "entangled" by the regulations related to Decree 116, which quickly flooded many new models, with especially competitive prices asthese products enjoy 0% import tax from regional countries.

Price dropped sharply

In terms of automobile brands, the market leader in sales last month continued to be Toyota with 7,216 cars delivered to customers; Mitsubishi suddenly rose to second position with 3,566 cars, Ford ranked third with 3,144 vehicles and Hondacame fourth with 3,058 vehicles, other brands have had good sales but last month werein last place, such as Kia and Mazda with sales of 2,683 and 2,515 vehicles, respectively.

However, the report of salesofVAMA does not fully represent the whole Vietnamese automobile market because this is the result of VAMA enterprises. Even some members of VAMA do not publicly announce their sales such as Mercedes-Benz andVinFast.

This figure does not include the results of the TC Motor, while this is currently the business with the largest number of passenger cars sold in the market. In October TC Motorbrandwhich sold 7,737 units, bringing the total sales in the first ten months of 2019 to 63,210 vehicles of all kinds. In October,combining the announced figures of VAMA and TC Motor, Vietnam's auto market consumed 36,686 cars, in ten months of 2019, there were 322,492 cars.

On the other hand, there are many sales results of other brands such as Audi, Jaguar, Land Rover, Subaru, Volkswagen and Volvo thathave not been includedhere.

The auto market will be positive at the end of the year. Photo Nguyen Ha

However, the salesresults of October did not reach the expectations of businesses after a series of promotions and deep discounts; especially after the biggest auto show of the year.

Many comments show that Vietnam's automobile market will accelerate in the last months of the year.This is the peak season for automobile procurement in Vietnam. Especially, in the context of companiesracing to reduce the price of vehicles, especially domesticproducts because of inventory.