Nearly half a billion USD imported cars in 6 months

According to the General Statistics Office, in the first 6 months of this year, units and individuals in Vietnam spent nearly half a billion USD to import completely built-up (CBU) cars.

The growth of the imported car market is gradually asserting itself as an inevitable trend in the context of import tax being deeply cut.

Specifically, the total import turnover of CBU cars in the first half of 2014 is estimated at 25,000 units and 497 million USD, up 44.4% in volume and 53.9% in value compared to the same period last year.

The “peak” was set in May with 5,000 units imported into the country, reaching a turnover value of 106 million USD. It is estimated that the number of CBU cars in June will also continue to be maintained at the same level as in May, but the turnover value will decrease significantly to 84 million USD.

Looking back over the past half year, it can be seen that the import turnover of completely built-up cars to Vietnam has continuously increased. Starting with the level of 3,000 cars in the first two months of the year with the turnover value reaching 65 and 51 million USD respectively. March and April had the same number of 4,000 imported cars, but the value of the following month was still higher than the previous month, increasing from 84 million USD to 89 million USD. And as mentioned above, the turnover of May reached a "peak" in both quantity and value and will likely continue until June.

The market situation also reflects quite closely the statistics. Since the beginning of the year, importers and distributors of genuine CBU cars have said that purchasing power is maintaining a fairly high growth rate, ranging from 5-20%, compared to the same period last year and month after month.

Even for members of the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association (VAMA), there is a significant difference in sales volume between domestically assembled vehicles (CKD) and CBU vehicles. For example, in the first 5 months of the year, while the growth rate of CKD vehicles was only 23% compared to the same period last year, the growth rate of CBU vehicles reached 75%.

Obviously, the growth of the imported car market is gradually asserting itself as an inevitable trend in the context of import tax being deeply cut while assembly plants have not had any strong push. That is also a big concern for the domestic auto industry.

Import turnover of completely built-up cars in the first 6 months of 2014

Quantity (pieces) Value (USD)

January 2014 3,000 65,000,000

February 2014 3,000 51,000,000

March 2014 4,000 84,000,000

April 2014 4,000 89,000,000

May 2014 5,000 106,000,000

June 2014 (estimated) 5,000 84,000,000

6 months 2014 (estimated) 25,000 497,000,000

Source:General Statistics Office

According to VnEconomy