HANOI: Vietnamese automobile sales in August decreased 10 per cent to 18,236 units compared to July, reported the Viet Nam Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (VAMA).
This is seen as a sudden reduction in the domestic automobile market, which had witnessed strong and continuous growth in sales since early last year. However, part of the decrease was predictably reported, since August, or lunar July, is known as Thang Co hon (month of lonely spirits) and believed to be particularly unlucky – when people traditionally minimise their purchases, especially vehicles.
Anticipating slow sales, a number of automakers launched sales promotions in order to maintain their sales or prevent a sharp decrease. For instance, Truong Hai Automobile JSC (Thaco) had promoted Peugeot and many Kia brands, providing increased insurance and offering service vouchers. In fact, customers of Kia’s New Sorento, Kia K3 and Kia Rondo could receive incentives worth VND65 million (US$2,888), VND30 million ($1,333) and VND24 million ($1,066), respectively.
Thanks to the promotion programme, the sales of Kia and Peugeot brands increased by 11 per cent and 28 per cent, respectively, in comparison with the previous month. Meanwhile, almost all other VAMA firms saw reductions in sales. However, the sales growth in August was still 45 per cent higher than in the same period last year.
Also, VAMA reported that the growth rate in sales between imported completely built units (CBUs) and complete knock down (CKD) units, which were locally-assembled, continued to see a significant gap.
In the first eight months of this year, the sale of CKD reached 105,267 units, an increase of 54 per cent year-on-year. Meanwhile, CBUs saw 36,810 in sales, 67 per cent higher than the same period last year.
