The local automobile market has seen signs of recovery before the Lunar New Year holiday, or Tet, as customer demand has increased compared to previous months.

Some dealers of Toyota Vietnam and Honda Vietnam said that demand has picked up sharply and their customers are not able to take cars until after Tet or later.

According to Toyota Vietnam, there were 581 Camry cars produced last month, of which 563 cars were sold. As the automaker has signed around 400 Camry car sale contracts, customers will have to wait until March or April to receive their automobiles.

Similarly, Honda Vietnam saw its sale volume in December tripling that in previous months. Notably, the CR-V model is now not available at some dealers of Honda Vietnam and customers may have to wait for the new version of this model after Tet.

For Ford Vietnam, December saw the strongest monthly sale of the year with 726 automobiles sold.

Explaining the sale pickups, some car manufacturers said that the demand is usually high in the run up to Tet. However, these figures were lower than previous years as difficulties still remained on the domestic market.

Besides, the demand has outpaced supply as some manufacturers have scaled down production. Toyota Vietnam and Ford Vietnam have run just-in-time business to prevent inventories.

Meanwhile, some auto dealers said that the market has seen signs of recovery partly because the Government has canceled the scheme of collecting personal vehicle restriction fees.

The market for used cars has also warmed up after a year of staying quiet. Most dealers noticed that the demand has increased after the registration fee is cut to 2% from the previous rate of 12%.

Tran Duy Phu, owner of An Phu Gia auto showroom, saw around 10 customers looking for used cars in the past two weeks. However, his showroom has halted used car business given sluggish trade last year.

Although the demand for used cars has increased, it is still low compared to previous years, Phu said.

The Saigon Times Daily