Sales of Thaco increased twofold Toyota Vietnam's in April

According to the sales report of the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturer’s Association (VAMA), Truong Hai Automobile (Thaco) continued to lead the automobile market with 8,679 units sold in April 2018 while the figure for Toyota was just 4,234 units.

Sales of the total industry last month were 21,123 units, as same as March 2018 and down four per cent versus April 2017.

Specifically, 13,549 units were passenger cars; 6,357 units were commercial vehicles and 1,217 units were special-purpose vehicles.

CKD (Completely Knocked Down) volume was 17,910 units, down five per cent versus March 2018 and the sales volume of CBU (Complete Built-Up) was 3,213 units, 37 per cent higher than the previous month.

These opposite trends between imported and locally assembled cars are understandable as in March 2018, sales of CKD increased by 76 per cent. The demand for CKD has also increased significantly in the context that the Decree 116 has been still an obstacle for many automobile manufacturers importing cars into Vietnam, leading to the shortage in CBU supply.

The growth in CBU sales in the past two months was thanks to a large number of cars imported from Thailand after Thai Government agreed to provide the Vehicle Type Approval (VTA) certification required in the Decree 116.

Moreover, sales performance of VAMA members in February 2018, when tax-free cars within ASEAN region had not reached Vietnam, was quite poor. Accordingly, the number of CKD cars reduced by 48 per cent and the figure for CBU units reduced by 68 per cent compared to the previous month.

Earlier, when the Decree 116 came into effect in January 2018, sales of CBU automobiles also decreased by 30 per cent compared to the final month of last year.

Although the sales of CBU grew strongly last month and CKD’s reduced slightly, the latter still outnumbered the former when taking Toyota and Thaco as examples.

Specifically, the sales of Thaco, a major local player, increased by two per cent to reach 8,679 units.

Meanwhile, the number of automobiles sold by Toyota this April decreased by six per cent to 4,234 units. Toyota’s mainstream product Fortuner imported from Indonesia disappeared from the list of automobiles sold.

Since the Decree 116 came into effect on January 1, 2018, Toyota has not been able to import tax-free cars although the Ministry of Transport has accepted the VTA provided by Indonesian Government. It is expected that Toyota Vietnam’s first batch of tax-free cars would be imported into Vietnam in the next few months.