At the beginning of the year, motorbikes are opened to collect dust.

After Tet, motorbike shops, which were already empty of customers, are now even more deserted. This could be a prediction of a sluggish and unprofitable 2014 for the Vietnamese motorbike market.

When motorbikes were in their heyday, according to the market’s custom, after the days before Tet, when there was a bumper crop, price chaos, and price increases, it was not surprising that motorbike shops were deserted after Tet. Unfortunately, the Vietnamese motorbike market had just experienced an unprecedentedly sluggish year. During the year-end shopping season, there were still few customers, let alone these days.

Most of the motorbike shops are empty of customers in the first days of the year.

Walking through a series of streets and motorbike shops in Hanoi, I noticed that most of them were empty of customers. “My shop opened on the 6th of the new year. But for the past 2-3 days, I have been opening in the morning and closing in the afternoon without a single customer coming in to ask about the new year, let alone buying a motorbike. I was hoping for a customer to buy a motorbike to start the business, but I haven’t seen any yet” – said a sales staff at a Yamaha motorbike shop on Ton Duc Thang Street, Hanoi.

Mr. Dat - Honda motorbike shop (located in Thanh Tri district) said: "Knowing that after Tet there will be no buyers, my boss proactively gave out-of-province employees an extended holiday until the 10th. Only 2 employees whose houses are near the shop went early to open the shop to get the day. But the 2 people had nothing to do because no one asked."

Genuine motorbike shops are deserted, and businesses selling imported motorbikes are even more desolate. Walking along Hue and Ba Trieu streets - streets with many imported motorbike shops - one can see the "afternoon market" scene of the first days of the year. "Not even a single motorbike has been sold, sitting in the shop only makes me feel more miserable, my brothers and I closed the shop to go to the New Year's Eve ceremony. Well, now we can only pray that this year will be better. If it continues like last year, the shop might go out of business" - a sales staff of LH motorbike shop said.

"Afternoon market" scene of imported motorbike shops on Hue street (Hanoi)

The sight of empty motorbike shops has become familiar to many people recently. And it seems to signal another bad year for motorbike dealers in Vietnam.

Slow sales, many dealers at risk of closing

According to the assessment, the 2014 market only reached 2.8 million vehicles, equivalent to 2013. The reason is said to be the difficult economy, people tightened spending. In 2014, the macro-economic indicators were not bright, so the motorbike market will certainly still be difficult. The motorbike companies are facing difficulties, of course, the dealers and stores are also moving closer to the risk of closing down.

According to the calculation of the owner of Yamaha VN motorbike dealer (Hanoi), the average cost of renting premises for a mid-sized dealer is about 50-70 million VND, a large dealer is about 90-150 million VND/month. Employee salaries are also nearly 50-100 million VND, or even more depending on the scale and quantity. In addition, there are many other taxes and fees...

Just roughly calculating like that, each level 1 dealer of Yamaha, Honda or Suzuki needs to sell at least 100-150 vehicles/month, if it is a large dealer, it must have sales of 300-500 vehicles, and at the same time must do good business in the warranty and maintenance fields... to avoid losing capital.

Deserted scene at the beginning of the year predicts another bad year for the motorbike market

However, the “sad scene” of dealers in the first days of this year signals another year of sluggishness in the motorbike market. Most stores have monthly sales falling far short of the “necessary and sufficient” conditions to maintain their businesses.

For that reason, many motorbike shops and dealers have had to transfer or even close. Many units could not hold on, so the dealer owners had to sell at a price of 3-5 billion VND. Meanwhile, a few years ago, opening a motorbike dealer cost at least tens of billions of VND.

Business people predict that with the current trading situation, in 2014 more agents and stores will have to stop operating.

According to Vietnam.net