Hanoi (VNA) - Automobile sales in the two firstquarters of 2018 went down 6 percent compared to the same period last year toreach 125,659 units, the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (VAVA)reported on July 10.

Notably, the sales of domestically-assembled automobiles were estimated at106,678, up 10 percent, whilst imported ones slumped 49 percent year-on-year,reaching only 19,039.

VAMA said as many as 21,913 units of vehicles were sold in June alone, down 5percent month-on-month.

Among the total, the sales of special-purpose vehicles sawthe strongest fall at 24 percent down to 447 units, while that of commercial andpassenger vehicles decreased by 8 and 1 percent to 6,281 and 15,185 units,respectively.

Almost all VAMA members reported a decline in sales over thelast six months with Toyota’s Lexus brand witnessing the biggest drop at 83percent; followed by Ford at 33 percent; Nissan at 26 percent; Toyota andMercedes-Benz at 13 percent; and GM Vietnam at 9 percent.

Experts attributed the situation to Decree No.116/2017/ND-CP issued by theGovernment on conditions for production, assembling, import, trading, and the maintenance service supply activities of domestic firms.

Across the whole market, the only imports were Honda’s four models (including itsCR-V, Civic, Jazz, and Accord brands), and GM Vietnam’s two models of ChevroletTrailblazer and Colorado for distribution in the first half of 2018.

Aside from Honda Vietnam and GM Vietnam, since the beginningof this year, no car company has distributed imported vehicles to the marketdue to the requirements of the decree, which took effect at the beginning ofthe year.

Recently, Toyota Vietnam has announced the sale price ofthree imported vehicle models including Fortuner, Hilux, and Hiace. Thesemodels will be officially distributed to the market in August.

Other automakers such as Ford, Nissan, and Mitsubishi alsosaid that they are trying to complete relevant procedures required in the decree.They hope to import and distribute new models to the market at the end of thethird quarter or the beginning of the last quarter of this year.

As such, vehicles supplied in the market from the beginningof the year until now and from now until the end of the year are still mostlymanufactured and assembled in Vietnam with leading businesses and brands suchas Hyundai Thanh Cong, GM Vietnam, Truong Hai Automobile JSC (Thaco) with thetop brands of Mazda, Kia, and Peugeo.-VNA