Philippines still has worst vehicle production in S.E. Asia

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines continued to have the worst performance in motor vehicle production in Southeast Asia after being the only country with a lower year-on-year output in the January to August period.

Data from the ASEAN Automotive Federation showed the Philippines produced 55,784 vehicles as of end-August, down 44.6 percent from the 100,737 vehicles assembled in the same period last year.

The Philippines was an outlier in the region as all its neighbors with vehicle assembly operations had higher output in the same eight-month period.

In particular, Southeast Asia’s automotive production hub Thailand had a 10.4 percent increase in output as it produced 1.42 million vehicles this year from 1.29 million vehicles a year ago.

Indonesia’s vehicle output rose 9.9 percent to 883,168 units as of end-August from the previous year’s 803,455 units, while Malaysia’s grew 11.8 percent to 383,498 units from 342,958 units last year.

Vietnam assembled 132,654 units in the eight-month period up slightly from 131,352 units a year ago, while Myanmar’s output surged 164.5 percent to 6,946 units from 2,626 units in the previous year.

Total vehicle output in ASEAN climbed eight percent to 2.88 million units in the January to August period from 2.67 million units last year.

As for sales, the Philippines was among the three countries in the region which saw a decline year-on-year in the eight-month period.

The Philippines sold 230,045 units as of end-August, 14.3 percent lower than the 268,424 units a year ago.

Other countries which had lower vehicle sales for the period are Brunei which sold 7,521 units, a six percent decline from 8,004 units in the previous year, and Singapore with sales of 62,570 units, down 18 percent from 76,333 units last year.

Thailand sold 657,878 units as of end-August, 21 percent higher than last year’s 543,123 units, while Indonesia’s sales grew 6.6 percent to 763,336 units in the eight-month period from 716,116 units in the previous year.

Also posting higher year-on-year sales are Malaysia which sold 423,730 units, Vietnam with 167,629 units, and Myanmar with to 9,930 units.

Vehicle sales for the ASEAN region climbed 7.2 percent to 2.32 million units as of end-August from 2.17 million units a year ago.

The Department of Trade and Industry has identified the automotive sector as a priority industry under the Inclusive Innovation Industrial Strategy.

In addition, the government is implementing the Comprehensive Automotive Resurgence Strategy program which seeks to revitalize the automotive industry and make the Philippines a regional automotive manufacturing hub.