Southeast Asean auto sales surge as region rebounds
Southeast Asean auto sales surge as region rebounds
SINGAPORE (AFP): Auto sales in Southeast Asia's four biggest markets surged in January and February, with Indonesia posting more than 400 percent growth from the same period last year, an industry survey showed.
New vehicle sales in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines in the first two months of the year reached 121,384 units, up 56.2 percent, according to a report by Visteon, a global auto component maker, received here Wednesday.
Toyota Motor Corp. of Japan was the regional leader with a market share of 20.4 percent, followed by Proton of Malaysia with 18.3 percent. Commercial vehicles outsold passenger cars.
Malaysia topped the sales figures with 45,983 units, up 16.1 percent from a year ago, but Indonesia posted the most explosive growth, with 29,098 units sold, 460.6 percent up compared to the low base of 5,191 units a year ago.
Thai sales rose 46.5 percent to 32,391, while Philippine sales were up 28.9 percent to 13,912.
"The strong increase in Indonesia's sales will help support sales of the whole region through 2000," said Terry Yanagisawa, Visteon's manager for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region.
Among the manufacturers, Toyota and Proton were trailed by Perodua, Malaysia's number two carmaker, and Japan's Mitsubishi, Isuzu, Honda and Nissan. Proton and Perodua combined achieved 29 percent of all sales.
In terms of auto categories, commercial vehicles posted 76.7 percent growth in January and February to 62,866 units, while passenger car sales rose 38.9 percent to 58,518.
In Bangkok, Toyota Motor Thailand said total vehicle sales in the country jumped 51.2 percent in the first three months of the year due to lower interest rates and intensive marketing campaigns by car-makers.
Sales from January to March stood at 54,786 units, a sharp increase from 36,234 units sold in the same period a year earlier, Toyota Motor Thailand said in a statement.
Toyota assembles statistics for the whole industry in Thailand.
"Low interest rate offers and graduated payments contributed to the jump in sales," it said.
Gerald Kania, president of Ford's ASEAN operations said in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday that Southeast Asian auto sales will fully recover by 2003 from the regional financial crisis but markets must integrate to boost growth and efficiency.