Car sales increase sharply in Q1

Industrial Economic Department, under ministry of planning and investment has lately revealed that the country's domestic car sales were reported to increase sharply in Q1 of 2010.

It was estimated that in the first three months of this year, there were 18,600 complete built unit (CBU) cars to be produced and installed by domestic manufacturers, up 31.2 percent against the same period of 2009. The corresponding figure for motorbikes was 882,000 units, an increase of 40.4 percent year-on-year.

In Q1 of 2010, Vietnam reported to reach car import turnover of $3.6 billion, counting for 25.6 percent of the total import-export turnovers.

As for car sales, while there was a sharp increase in CBU cars in Jan-Mar, the automobile manufacturers have recently coped with difficulty in car sales. Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association (VAMA) reported the total car sales of its members reached over 11,900 units in the first two months of 2010. It was expected that the car sales would be improved in March 2010, after overcoming the most difficult period of the year.