Indonesia 6-Month Sales Down; Philippines, Taiwan Up

TOKYO – Several Asian automotive markets report mixed sales and production results in the first half of the year.

In Indonesia, the region’s fifth-largest market by sales in 2014, deliveries from January through June tumbled 18.1% to 525,548. All-wheel-drive vehicles were the largest segment, accounting for nearly 70% of the total.

Automakers produced 577,507 vehicles in first-half 2015, down 14.4% from year-ago. Association of Indonesia Automotive Industries data shows 2-wheel-drive vehicles, including SUVs, CUVs and hatchbacks accounted for 377,838 builds, followed by pickup trucks (151,525), sedans (29,907) and AWD vehicles (17,578).

Contributing to the production shortfall was a softening of domestic demand caused by slowing economic growth plus inflation. As a result, the association recently lowered its 2015 sales forecast to 1.1 million units, from 1.2 million earlier in the year.

In the Philippines, sales jumped 20.7% year-on-year to 131,465 units. The Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines says car deliveries climbed 30% to 52,778 units, while commercial vehicles registered 18.9% growth to 78,687.

Toyota Motor Philippines, the nation’s largest producer, claimed a 43.9% market share during the period. It was followed by Mitsubishi Motors Philippines (19.2%), Ford Motor Philippines (7.9%), Isuzu Philippines (7.7%) and Honda Cars Philippines (6.6%).

Despite the spike in 6-month sales, the result was on track to fall far short of the industry’s 2015 target of 310,000 deliveries.

The Manila-based chamber reports no production figures.

Elsewhere, 6-month sales in Taiwan rose 1.4% to 150,884 units, with cars claiming an 81.3% share. Kuoizui was the leading brand with 58,400 deliveries.

Production fell 4.5% year-over-year to 181,214 units, according to the Taiwan Transportation Vehicle Manufacturers Assn. Car output dropped 7.4% to 154,312 units while CV production grew 16.6% to 26,902.

Unchanged from the previous year, Kuozui, a Toyota affiliate, was the nation’s largest producer. Between January and June, the automaker produced 93,438 units. It was followed by Nissan affiliate Yulon with 29,143 builds and Mitsubishi affiliate China Motor with 22,808.