Production and sales of motor vehicles in the ASEAN region dropped by as much 41 percent in the January-August period this year with the industry still reeling from the pandemic, data from the ASEAN Automotive Federation (AAF) showed.
Based on the AAF data published in its website, motor vehicle production in the region reached only a total of 1,641,099 units in the first seven months of the year or a hefty 41.4 percent decline from 2,801,048 units in the same period last year.
Biggest decliners are Indonesia and Thailand followed by Philippines and Malaysia. Indonesia, the biggest ASEAN market reduced its production by 48.6 percent to 427,607 units only, almost half of the of the 831,662 units sold in the January-August period last year.
Thailand, known as the Detroit in ASEAN, also posted a worrisome 42.5 percent decline in production to 812,721 units from 1,403,153 units in the January-August period 2019.
Meantime, the Philippines also posted a substantial 32.9 percent cut in production to 39,171 units from 58,386 units last year. Malaysia’s production also slowed down by 30.7 percent to 263,876 units from 380,552 units last year. Vietnam also posted negative growth of 24.3 percent to 88,651 units from 117,159 units in the January-August period last year.
Motorcycles and scooters production also declined by 37 percent to 1,535,508 units from 2,436,745 units in the first seven months of 2019.
Among countries that reported, the Philippines suffered the biggest decline of 59.1 percent to 323,138 units from 789,827 units int eh January-August period last year. Thailand also decreased its production by 27 percent to 939,370 units from 1,287,957 units last year. Malaysia produced only 273,000 units or 23.9 percent lower than 358,961 units last year.
In terms of sales, the region only sold 1,396,927 units or 38.4 percent lower than last year. Indonesia’s sales plunged 51.1 percent to 323,507 units from 661,919 units last year while Philippines dropped by 47.6 percent to 123,489 units from 235,544 units in the January-August sales period of 2019.
Thailand’s sales declined by 33.4 percent to 456,858 units from 685,652 units. Malaysia also sold only 285,045 units or 28.4 percent lower than last year. Vietnam declined by 25 percent also.
Myanmar and Brunei were the exceptions with positive 12.5 percent and 9.3 percent, respectively.
Likewise, sales of motorcycles and scooters declined by 25.8 percent to 1,979,761 from 2,669,191 units in 2019.