Of the figure, 14,621 were passenger cars, up 14 percent;11,889 were commercial vehicles, up 13 percent while 1,372 were special-usevehicles, down 6 percent month-on-month.
Also in December 2017, up to 20,047 units were assembled athome, a month-on-month increase of13 percent and 7,835 others were imported,marking a 11 percent rise.
Last year, a total of 272,750 units were sold, down 10percent yearly. The sales of passenger cars, commercial and special-usevehicles decreased by 15 percent, 2 percent and 12 percent, respectively.
As of late December, the sales of domestically-assembledunits fell by 19 percent to 194,960 while imported ones increased 9 percent to77,790.
The falling sales were attributed to consumers’ wait fordecrease in automobile prices in early 2018 when automobile import tariff willslip to zero percent in accordance with the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement.
In order to stimulate demand, almost all domestic assemblersand distributors offered a series of promotions and discounts. However,consumers still showed little interest.
However, in mid October, the government issued DecreeNo.116/2017 ND-CP on tightening automobile manufacturing and trade.
Later in November 16, 2017, it issued Decree No.125/2017/ND-CPon amendments and supplements to some articles of Decree No.122/2016/ND-CP onimport tariff and preferential import tariff, list of goods and their flat tax,compound tariff and out-of-quota import tariff.
Accordingly, flat and compound tariffs on importedsecondhand automobiles will increase by thousands of USD from January 1, 2018.
According to industry insiders, the market could seedecrease in prices of domestically-assembled automobiles this year thanks to zeropercent import tariff on automobile spare parts and 5-percent reduction in specialconsumption tax on units with engine 2.0 and less.
Thaco, Huyndai Thanh Cong and Toyota Vietnam are offeringdiscounts on such kind of vehicles but their prices will not be cheaper thanpromotion periods in 2017.-VNA