A long period of Tet Holiday in February caused car sales Vietnam decline by 61% month-on-month to 13,143 units, however, the number remained 6% higher year-on-year, according to a monthly report by Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association (VAMA).
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A slump in the number of car sales in February was considered due to the nine-day Tet or Lunar New Year holiday as reported by local media.
Last month's decline came after a 24% year-on-year jump in January and brought cumulative year-to-date sales to 43,242 units, up 14.4% from the same period of last year.
Sales of passenger vehicle were up by 29% to 34,908 units in the first two months of 2019 from 27,067 units in the equivalent period of last year, while commercial vehicle sales fell by 22% to 8,334 units from 10,730 units.
Sales of domestically assembled cars reached 7,685 units last month, down 59% compared to last month, while imported completely-built-units (CBUs) were 5,458 units, down 63%.
However, the mentioned figure did include 3,924 cars sold by Hyundai Thanh Cong, which is not a member of VAMA.
Truong Hai Auto Corporation (Thaco), the local assembler and distributor of Kia, Mazda, Peugeot and Hyundai, and a significant player in the commercial vehicle segment, reported an almost 12% drop in group sales to 14,549 units in the two-month period. Mazda sales were down by 2.7% to 6,854 units, while Kia sales remained flat at 4,936 units.
Toyota remained the leading vehicle brand in the country in January and February with sales rebounding by almost 24% to 9,899 units from weak year-earlier volumes, while Honda's sales jumped by 165% to 5,973 units. Ford's sales also rebounded strongly, by almost 43% to 4,999 units, while GM's sales plunged to 392 units from 1,812 units, however.
