Automotive sales improved 6.9 percent in September compared to the previous month bringing total sales in the first nine months this year to 93,385 units and boosting hopes the industry would be able to reach its target sales of 125,000 by yearend.

A report by the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc. (CAMPI) showed that automotive sales in September reached 11,304 units or 6.9 percent higher than the month of August sales of 10,575 units.

The higher September, however, sales failed to lift the overall year to date sales. The CAMPI report showed that overall first nine months sales reached only 93,385 units or 0.8 percent down from 94,133 units in the same period last year.

CAMPI president Elizabeth H. Lee expressed hope of meeting the yearend target as they only need to sell 31,615 units or an average of 10,540 units per month in the fourth quarter to be able to reach the target sales of 125,000 for the year.

“The industry continues to remain cautiously optimistic and is still looking at hitting the target of at least a flat growth for this challenging year," Lee said.

Currently, the industry is busy coping with the massive volume of vehicles being brought into the dealerships for repair with some having to resort to increasing manpower to keep up with the load and to hasten the repair of customers' vehicles.

The huge number of damaged vehicles could even trigger a higher demand as vehicle owners would be forced to replace their old units.

Of the total industry sales, the passenger car segment sold a total of 33,127 units in the first nine months or 1.7 percent down versus the same period last year while the commercial vehicle segment sold only 33,127 units, reflecting 0.3 percent decline versus 60,441 units in the same period last year. Except for light commercial vehicles (LCV) and trucks and buses, which comprise the sports utility vehicle categories, all categories reflected a decline in sales.