Car, Truckmakers' Group Sales Down in January 2020

What a way to start to the year 2020. Following the disaster that struck the country, which is the recent phreatic eruption of the Taal Volcano in Batangas, automative manufacturers group suffered a slowdown in sales. For the month of January, the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines, Inc. (CAMPI) and Truck Manufacturers Association (TMA) only sold 23,723 units, which reflected a decrease of 11.8 percent from the 26,888 units sold in the same period last year. CAMPI President Rommel Gutierrez said that the industry expects this growth slowdown mainly due to the adverse effect of the recent Taal Volcano eruption. "Majority of plants and some dealerships located in South Luzon were badly hit by ashfall, also affecting operations in some areas of Metro Manila. Some companies were also forced to temporarily suspend its operations for safety reasons,” said Gutierrez. However, he maintained that the industry is "brimming with optimism" that a recovery is underway in the coming months now that operations are back on track. "We will continue to work double time to catch-up on last month's losses. We assure our customers the highest level of quality in our products and services because safety and consumer satisfaction are our priorities" On a month-on-month basis, the group experienced a decline of 29.6 percent coming from sales surge growth in December 2019. Gutierrez said such movement is considered normal as it has been the industry’s consistent seasonal pattern for the past years. Toyota Motor Philippines, which still holds the biggest market share with 42.23 percent, suffered a loss of 21.7 percent versus the January 2019's 11,355 units rolled out. After Toyota enjoying the lion's share is Mitsubishi Motors Philippines with 21.2 percent share on second and Nissan Philippines with 11.91 percent hold of market. On fourth and fifth place are Honda Cars Philippines and Ford Philippines, respectively.  

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