Motor vehicle sales in SEA surpass 1m

Motor vehicle sales in SEA surpass 1m

BANGKOK (DPA): Motor vehicle sales in the four main Southeast Asian markets reached 1,036,000 units last year, surpassing the one million mark for the first time since 1996, industry sources said on Wednesday.

"This was the first time in four years that Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines have recorded more than one million vehicle sales," the Automotive Resources Asia Ltd (ARA), a market research and consultant company on the Asian auto industry, said.

In 1996, the year before the financial crisis struck in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), some 1.2 million vehicles were sold in the four main markets.

According to the ARA, total vehicle sales in Indonesia last year jumped 270 percent to reach 344,000 units. Sales in Malaysia were up 20 percent at 345,000 units and Thailand's vehicle sales reached 262,000 units, also a rise of 20 percent.

In the Philippines, some 85,000 vehicles were sold in 2000, up 14 per cent from sales of the previous year.

The outlook for sales in the year 2001, however, is more modest.

"The ASEAN region lacks an economic catalyst... What we have is a slow growth environment," said John Bonnell, director of market research at Bangkok-based ARA.

While the ARA predicts modest growth in vehicle sales in Thailand and the Philippines next year, it forecasts slight drops in Malaysia and Indonesia. It predicts total vehicle sales in all four countries will drop to 990,000 units next year.