Hyundai sales shoot up 13% in Q3

Hyundai Asia Resources, Inc. (HARI), the official distributor of Hyundai vehicles in the country, reported a solid 13% quarter-on-quarter increase in the third quarter of this year.

Ma. Fe Perez-Agudo, HARI president and CEO, said that unit sales jumped to 6,014 units from the 5,325 units sold in Q2 2015. Year-to-date sales though slowed to 16,703 units, 6 percent less than 17,693 units sold in 2014.

The Passenger Car (PC) category remarkably grew by 24 percent to 4,283 units in the third quarter  2015 versus the 3,458 units sold in the second quarter 2015, mainly due to the strong sales performance of the Eon and Accent.

But sales of Light Commercial Vehicles (LCV) for the third quarter of 2015 dipped by 7 percent to 1,731 units from the 1,867 units in the second quarter of 2015.

Year-on-year sales show PC’s slight decline of 3 percent, while LCV group grew by 7 percent  in Q3 2015.

According to Agudo, the Philippines still remains as one of the fastest growing economies in Asia, next to China and Vietnam, primarily owing to improved fiscal expenditure amid external headwinds.

She noted that despite the sluggish export and muted agriculture, Q2 GDP growth reached 5.6 percent which is stronger than the revised Q1 GDP growth of 5.0 percent. This translated to an average of 5.3 percent for the first semester of the year.

Given that scenario, the Philippines will unlikely hit the government economic target of 7-8 percent  for 2015. This is further aggravated by the dry spell brought by El Nino which can persist until the first half of 2016 despite the expected boost from the election-related spending ahead of 2016.

Another growth driver is the continuing low inflation regime, Agudo said.

Inflation dropped to new low of 0.4 percent,  for the month of September, translating to 1.6 percent which is below the government’s target of 2-4 percent. Slowdown in commodity prices is generally attributed to downward pressures in food, energy and utility prices. Continuing effect of lower inflation further supports the auto industry as evident by the robust auto sales. This is also fueled by the growing auto loan which is buoyed by the attractive financing packages. This bodes well for the auto industry as it is projected to grow by double-digit year-end.

“With the holiday season fast approaching, Hyundai is emboldened to delight the Filipino market with unwavering customer service on top of a product line-up tailor fit to their changing lifestyle amid the heightened competition in the automotive arena,” Agudo said.

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