By Bernie Cahiles-Magkilat
The Philippines is ASEAN’s second fastest producer of cars in 2017 with 20.9 percent growth over 2016 to 141,252 units from only 116,868 units in 2016, the ASEAN Automotive Federation (AAF) reported.
Based on the AAF data, Myanmar posted the fastest growth at 328 percent although at smaller production of 4,930 units from 1,152 units the previous year.
ASEAN’s two biggest motor vehicle manufacturers – Thailand and Indonesia – posted flat growth.
Thailand, known as the Detroit of Asia, manufactured a total of 1,988,823 units or 2.3 percent growth from 1,944,417 units locally produced in 2016. Indonesia’s production was also limited to a slight 3.3 percent growth to 1,216,615 units from 1,177,389 units in 2016.
Malaysia’s car production in 2017 declined by 8.4 percent to 499,639 units from 545,253 units in 2016. Vietnam also suffered a significant decrease of 17 percent to 195,937 units from 236,161 units in 2016.
Overall, the five ASEAN countries were able to produce 4,047,196 units of motor vehicles in 2017 or 0.6 percent growth from the 4,021,240 units manufactured in these countries in 2016.
In terms of sales, the Philippines also maintained its ranking as second fastest growing market after Myanmar.
The Philippine motor market expanded by 18.4 percent with sales reaching 425,673 units in 2017 from 359,572 units in 2016. By Myanmar’s market grew a robust 97.3 percent albeit a small volume of 8,225 units from 4,168 units in 2016.
Indonesia, ASEAN’s largest market, managed to grew by 1.7 percent with total sales of 1,079,534 units from 1,061,735 units in 2016.
Thailand, the region’s second biggest car market, grew by 13.4 percent to 871,650 units from 768,788 units in 2016.
Three ASEAN markets suffered declines. Malaysia slightly decline by 0.6 percent with sales of 576,635 units from 580,085 units in 2016. Vietnam’s car sales posted negative 7.5 percent growth for 250,619 unit sold while Brunei substantially decreased by 15.4 percent to 11,209 units.
Car sales in Singapore, ASEAN’s most developed economy, grew by 5.2 percent to 116,148 units from 110,455 units the previous year.
Overall, total sales from the 8 ASEAN countries in 2017 grew by 5.4 percent to 3.339,693 units from 3,168,871 units the previous year.