ASEAN vehicle sales up

ASEAN vehicle sales up

TOKYO (Kyodo): Combined sales of motor vehicles in ASEAN for
this year are likely to exceed one million vehicles for the first
time ever, a business daily said Saturday in a dispatch from
Bangkok.

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun, quoting a Japanese auto industry
estimate, said vehicle sales for the first half of the year in
the six-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations increased
steadily by 11.4 percent from a year earlier to 516,941.

The robust growth is attributable to a cut in import tariffs
on motor vehicles and higher national incomes in that part of the
world, according to the daily.

Vehicle sales are expected to lead consumer spending in ASEAN,
made up of Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines,
Singapore and Brunei.

For the January-June period, domestic sales of new motor
vehicles in Indonesia surged 57 percent from the year before to
138,700, reflecting strong sales of small commercial vehicles and
trucks.

In Thailand, the largest auto consumer in ASEAN, vehicle sales
remained high at 228,000, although they were down 2.1 percent
from the year before.

Sales in Malaysia and the Philippines gained steadily by 6.3
percent and 15 percent, respectively, to 84,400 and 42,300, the
newspaper said.