Vietnam Jan-May car sales soar 162 pct yr/yr
HANOI, June 6 (Reuters) - Auto sales in Vietnam more than doubled in the first five months of 2008 from the same period last year, the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association said on Friday, as buyers rushed to avoid planned higher taxes.
Total sales by 16 car makers jumped 162 percent to 58,860 cars in January-May, with the figure last month alone doubling from May last year to 11,494 units, the association said in its monthly report.
Toyota (7203.T) kept its lead among the 12 manufacturers backed by foreign firms, with sales of 10,228 cars between January-May, compared with 6,388 cars sold a year ago.
The government's plan to increase registration fees to up to 15 percent in 2008 from the current 5 percent has boosted purchases ahead of the the tax hike, dealers said.
The government has said it planned to raise the tax to discourage the use of cars to reduce worsening road congestion. It has already hiked tariffs on imported cars to 83 percent from 70 percent previously.
Vietnam's car imports in the first five months surged 292 percent to $1.31 billion, with the volume of fully assembled vehicles jumping six-fold to 35,400 units, the government has said.
Ford Motor Co (F.N), Honda Motor Co Ltd (7267.T), Mitsubishi Motors Corp (7211.T), Mitsubishi Co and Proton (PROT.KL), Suzuki Motor Corp (7269.T) and Nissho Iwai, part of Sojitz Holdings Corp (2768.T) are among foreign firms which assemble cars in Vietnam. (Reporting by Nguyen Nhat Lam; Editing by Anshuman Daga)
