A car showroom. — Photo tapchicongthuong.vn

HÀ NỘI — The Vietnamese automobile market has witnessed a deep decline the first month of this year, however, businesses and experts forecast that the market might make a breakthrough in the second half of the year.

The total car sales of member units only reached 19,243 vehicles in January, down 50 per cent compared to the previous month, according to the Việt Nam Automobile Manufacturers Association (VAMA).

The passenger car and commercial vehicle segments both saw a significant decline, 54 per cent and 31.5 per cent, respectively.

Even the specialised vehicle segment could not avoid the decline, down 46 per cent compared to the previous month.

In this context, the deep downward trend also clearly reflected the vehicle's origin. The number of domestically-assembled cars sold was only 9,783 cars, down 59 per cent, while imported CBU cars also fell 36 per cent month-on-month, reaching 9,460 cars.

Experts said that in addition to economic difficulties, people were tightening their spending, and customers had bought cars before the Government's 50 per-cent registration fee reduction policy expired in December last year.

The last month of applying the registration fee reduction policy helped car sales in the entire market increase by 39 per cent compared to the previous month.

The TC GROUP said that January was the time near the Lunar New Year, and consumers' cash flow was oriented to holiday needs rather than focusing on buying cars, leading to Hyundai's sales in particular also being low as well as the whole market declining.

It is predicted that after this time passes, the market will gradually stabilise, with expectations for higher sales growth in the following months.

The Vietnam News Agency quoted Toyota Việt Nam’s assessment that the market situation was expected to still face many difficulties and challenges this year.

In that context, it and its dealer system would continue to make efforts to improve product and service quality to attract customers, said the company’s representative.

More broadly, Ford Việt Nam assessed that the general difficulties of the auto industry are becoming more and more apparent as demand decreased while the burden of inventory increased.

However, Ford Việt Nam believed that the difficulties were only short-term. The Vietnamese automobile market was still considered a potential and attractive market in the eyes of automobile manufacturers, it said.

Economic experts forecast that the Vietnamese automobile market would grow 10 per cent this year compared to last year due to the recovery of the economy and the preferential support from the Government.

According to assessments from the Analysis Centre of SSI Securities Corporation, the country's automobile market will continue to face difficulties in the first half of this year because consumer demand remains weak and buyers have the mentality of waiting for new car models.

However, in general, the market would see a recovery in both quantity and value in the year, it said. SSI also forecast this year’s auto sales growth to be about 9 per cent year-on-year. — VNS