HANOI, March 9 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam's automobile sales in February 2017 jumped 50 percent year-on-year to reach 17,621 units, according to Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers' Association (VAMA) in its latest report on Thursday.
The figure, however, posted a 13-percent decrease over the previous month, said VAMA.
Among those, tourist vehicles dropped 32 percent from January to 10,044 units while commercial vehicles rose 24 percent during the same period to 6,344 units. A total of 1,233 specialized vehicles were sold in February, up 220 percent month-on-month, said VAMA.
Concerning origins of the cars, the number of domestically assembled and imported cars hit 14,560 and 3,061 units, down 6 percent and 35 percent compared to January, respectively.
Domestic manufacturer Truong Hai Auto Corporation (Thaco) led VAMA members with 7,724 units sold, a year-on-year increase of 85 percent. The car maker and importer accounted for 45 percent of the country's market share.
Thaco was followed by Toyota Vietnam with 3,579 units, up 51 percent year on year and representing 21 percent of the market share.
Ford Vietnam came third with 1,881 units, up 26 percent year on year and accounting for 11 percent of the market share.
In the first two months of 2017, total automobile sales in Vietnam rose 8 percent from the same period last year to 37,851 units. The sale of passenger cars and special-purpose vehicles went up 21 percent and 5 percent, respectively, while that of commercial vehicles dropped 11 percent. The number of imported cars sold expanded 13 percent while domestically assembled cars slid 5 percent.
Local insiders said on Vietnam's state-run news agency VNA on Thursday that the contractions in February sales were largely due to lower demand for cars after the Lunar New Year holiday, the biggest holiday of the year which usually witnesses peak demand for cars.
In addition, local consumers are waiting for later car price plunge when tariffs on car imports from ASEAN countries will be fully removed by 2018.
