CAMPI eyes 17% hike in auto industry sales for 2022

MANILA – The Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines, Inc. (CAMPI) targets the local automotive vehicle industry to expand by 17 percent in terms of volume of sales this year.

“As the economy reopens, the safety and health of the public is paramount to prevent another wave of virus infections and cause disruption anew to the recovery of the industry, which targets to sell 336,000 units this year — a 17-percent increase from the actual volume last year,” CAMPI president Rommel Gutierrez said in a statement Thursday.

Last year, CAMPI alone registered a 20-percent sales increase selling 268,488 units in 2021.

On the other hand, the group of vehicle importers reported an increase of 14 percent last year with a total of 58,916 unit sales.

Meanwhile, CAMPI members’ vehicle sales in February this year still registered a decline. However, the decrease is slower compared to the start of the year.

CAMPI said vehicle sales declined by 7.3 percent to 24,304 units in February 2022 from 26,230 units last year.

The decrease slowed down from an 11.2-percent drop in year-on-year sales in January.

On the other hand, industry sales improved by 17 percent in February compared to January 2022 sales of 20,765 units after a 25.4-percent month-on-month decline at the start of the year.

Gutierrez attributed the recovery of the market to the declining coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases in February following the surge in January due to the Omicron variant.

“The February 2022 sales have regained a double-digit growth amid the improved consumer confidence as the country has shifted to ‘low-risk’ for Covid-19 classification, according to the government report –a welcome development for the industry,” he added.

Month-on-month sales, the commercial vehicle segment jumped by 22.8 percent to 18,390 units in February from 14,981 units in January.

Passenger car sales rose by 2.25 percent to 5,914 units from 5,784 units during the same period.

“The industry is anticipating to see a continued recovery this month as the economy further reopens, downgrading to the least restrictive Alert Level 1 in major areas, including the National Capital Region starting this month,” Gutierrez added.

Two-month sales of the industry declined by 9.2 percent to 45,069 units from 49,610 units in the same period last year.

Both passenger car and commercial vehicle segments’ sales dropped by 23 percent and 3 percent, respectively.