Retail discounts accelerate motorbike sales

Motorbike makers in Vietnam produced 384,800 motorbikes last month, a year-on-year increase of 11.3 percent, fuelled by discounts of retail prices, statistics released yesterday showed.

According to the general Statistical Office (GSO), the number of motorbikes sold saw a 16 per cent increase last month, which saw the inventory level for January drop to 31.4 per cent compared to last year's 41.7 per cent.

The revival of the motorbike sector was attributed to the mass discounting of retail prices to trigger demand.

"There is no other way to ignite demand than cutting retail prices" said Pham Manh Sy, general director of the Viet Phu company, a prominent Yamaha retailer in Hanoi.

Sy told Vietnam News that economic difficulties and the increasing cases of motorbike fires had decelerated the market.

"However, the appeal of lower prices drew buyers back," he added.

Sy said retail prices of some models were cut from 5 to 10 per cent.

Meanwhile, the country imported 5,000 complete-built-unit (CBU) motorbikes worth $8 million last month, according to GSO.

While the figure represents a 70 per cent rise in volume and 100 per cent increase in value over December 2011, it also represents a 69.5 per cent drop in volume and a 71 per cent decline in value over the corresponding period last year.

According to the Ministry of Transport, as many as 35 million motorbikes now run throughout the country.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade predicted that Vietnam will have a population of 99.6 million and 33.5 million motorbikes by 2020, or one motorbike for 2.97 people.