Car carriers in the Philippines suffered up to a 50% drop in volumes since the massive flooding in Asia’s auto manufacturing hub, Thailand.
“The Thailand flooding really is a big blow to car carriers operating in and out of the Philippines,” said a ranking official of a car carrier who requested anonymity.
“From our assessment, volume was reduced by at least 50%. Our weekly volume has also not picked up significantly despite some activity in Thailand, Indonesia and Japan,” the source, whose company belongs to the top three car carriers in the country, told PortCalls.
“Our forecast is that we are likely to normalize operations sometime late in the first quarter of 2012,” the source added.
Toyota shipments from Thailand — usually mid-range cars — have been cut by more than 50% while production of Honda cars has totally stopped, according to the source.
Indonesia-based car manufacturers have been plugging shortages for mid-range vehicles, and Japan, shortages for high-end vehicles.
For now, Philippine-based Toyota assemblers are only able to assemble Innova and Vios brands but at a slow pace due to the lack of spare parts.
As a result, the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines, Inc (Campi) reported a 10.4% dip in car sales to 12,090 for November compared to 13,489 units a month earlier.
“This can be attributed to the initial effects of the supply problem in Thailand which limited the availability of some models in the domestic market,” Campi said.
Passenger car sales slumped 34.1% to 2,504 units in November, dragging sales from January to November by 5.6% to 41,789 units.
Commercial vehicle sales dipped 1.1% to 9,586 units in November, resulting in flat sales of 89,453 units for the 11-month period.
Toyota sold the most number of vehicles from January to November with 50,610 units; followed by Mitsubishi Motors, 30,175 units; and Ford Motor, including Mazda, 11,653 units.
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