Sales of all vehicle segments posted negative growth in the month of August versus July pulling overall industry sales to a negative 1.3 percent in the January-August period this year versus the same period last year, data from the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc. (CAMPI) showed.

CAMPI reported that total industry sales in August reached only 10,575 units versus 11,597 units in July reflecting overall decline of 8.8 percent.

The August sales have effectively pulled down total industry sales to 82,081 units for the January to August this year or 1.3 percent lower from 83,196 units in the same period last year.

Despite the decline, CAMPI president Elizabeth H. Lee has remained optimistic.

“The industry remains positive and is banking on continued and stronger OFW remittances which will spur consumption coupled with auto loans seen to grow as well in the coming months,” Lee said.

Of the total sales, passenger car sales were down 0.9 percent to 29,063 units from 29,320 units in the first eight months last year. Likewise, sales of commercial vehicle posted a bigger decline of 1.6 percent to 53,018 units in the January-August period this year from 53,876 units in the same period last year.

Lee attributed the decline in sales in passenger cars to the unavailability of unit and color of most passenger car models/variants.

The commercial vehicles (CV) sector sales were affected by the seasonally low-selling 'ghost' month partly also due to stock unavailability, she said.

Notably, sales of all vehicle segments were down in August versus the previous month.

The Asian utility vehicles (AUV) posted sharpest decrease of 23.4 percent to 2,055 units from 2,683 units in July. The light commercial vehicles (LCV) segment was down 5.7 percent to 4,441 units in August from the previous month of 4,707 units.

Light trucks also posted a negative 0.6 percent to 176 units versus 177 in July.

“The absence of fleet sales and the lower-than-expected business spending are the factors that led to the low sales performance of the light trucks segment,” Lee said.