Vehicle output down 4.2%

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines continued to trail behind its neighbors in the Southeast Asian region in terms of motor vehicle production, with its locally assembled units declining by 4.2 percent in the first semester of the year.

Data from the ASEAN Automotive Federation (AAF) showed the Philippine car industry assembled 35,082 units in the January to June period from 36,632 units assembled in the same period last year.

The country’s vehicle production places the local car industry at the bottom of the list of Southeast Asian countries with assembly operations.

The same data showed Thailand manufactured a total of 1.341 million units, while Indonesia produced 586,479 units. Malaysia assembled 293,511 units followed by Vietnam with 41,091 units during the six-month period.

In terms of sales, the Philippines was just in the middle of the pack having sold 86,684 units in the first semester, 19 percent higher than the sales of 72,874 units in the previous year.

Philippine motor vehicle sales for the January to June period are lower than Thailand’s 740,795 units, Indonesia’s 601,952 units and Malaysia’s 313,488 units.

Philippine sales were higher though compared to Vietnam’s 45,093 units, Singapore’s 16,702 units and Brunei’s 9,227 units.

As for the production of motorcycles and scooters, the Philippines saw the number of locally assembled units rise by 33 percent to 345,231 in the first-half from 259,554 units a year ago.

This placed the country behind Indonesia which assembled 3.949 million units and Thailand which had a production volume of 1.195 million units, but ahead of Malaysia which had 276,304 units as of end-June.

In terms of sales, the Philippines was once again in the middle as it sold 354,393 units in the first semester, up 5.6 percent from last year’s 335,696 units.

The Philippines was next to Indonesia which sold 3.94 million units and Thailand which had sales of 1.098 million units, but beat Malaysia which had 279,320 units and Singapore with 5,643 units.

Established in 1976, the AAF seeks to promote automotive market integration, growth, cooperation, as well as investments in the ASEAN region.

The Philippine government which is moving to revive the country’s manufacturing sector is coming up with a road map for the automotive industry.

Trade Secretary Gregory Domingo told reporters that under the road map, the government is planning to provide incentives to vehicle manufacturers that meet a minimum volume requirement for production and exports.

The road map for the automotive industry has yet to be released as he said that revisions still have to be made within the next two weeks before it can be presented again to the other cabinet members.

Vehicle manufacturers have been waiting for the release of the road map citing that it is needed in deciding on future investments here.

“The road map is very important for us to make that step so that when it comes out, we’re able to sit down seriously with our counterparts in Japan and Singapore in order to talk about new investments,” Toyota Motor Philippines Corp. vice chairman Alfred Ty said.