ISUZU Philippines Corp. sees the local auto industry winding down in 2016, predicting a cyclical slowdown of its growth rate to 5 percent to 10 percent, from a predicted 20-percent growth this year.
Isuzu Senior Vice President Arthur Balmadrid said the auto industry will likely go through a “correction” next year, given the aggressive run of auto sales this year. “The industry is seen to sell the 310,000 units forecast for the year. That’s a 20-percent growth over last year’s. In terms of volume, there will be growth, but it may not be as high as 20 percent. Baka 5 percent to 10 percent na lang,” Balmadrid said.
He added that the volume of cars sold will still be higher than last year’s, but the growth will be less than that seen in previous years.
The auto industry notched retail sales of 234,747 units in 2014, a 30-percent growth over 2013.
For 2015, the industry is expected to meet the 310,000 unit-sales mark.
The auto industry already sold 234,951 units as of October, surpassing 234,747 units, the total sales figure of auto assemblers in 2014.
The year-to-date growth as of October represented a 22.4-percent growth.
Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc. (Campi) President Rommel Gutierrez in October said the industry expects to reach its target of 310,000 by the end of 2015, combined with the sales of auto importers.
The significant boost in sales this year was credited to numerous new model offerings into the market, plus preelection spending of consumers.
While a 22,000 unit-sales volume by end-2015 is seen for Isuzu Philippines, growth is also expected to peter down to 5 percent to 10 percent, parallel to the industry, next year.
The third-largest auto maker in the Philippines has already sold 18,433 units in October, a significant 44.3-percent jump from the same period last year, and already surpassing its target of 18,000 units.
Isuzu is confident of selling 22,000 units this year. If this is realized, Isuzu would have notched a 42-percent growth from 2014’s actual sales of around 14,000 units.
The 22,000 units by year-end will be another record-high for Isuzu.
While Isuzu is keeping mum on the target for next year, the Japanese car brand assured continued investments as it gears up for a better year in sales, volume-wise.
“Because our volume is increasing, we will ask our network to also improve their warehouses to accommodate spare parts, there will be investments, of course. Buong network will have to keep up with the volume,” Balmadrid said.a