The
the parking area of the Vinastar automobile joint venture specializing in the
production of Mitsubishi vehicles in Thu Duc District, Ho Chi Minh City .Tuoi Tre
The automotive industry in Vietnam is facing a collapse afterToyota has announced that it may stop assembling automobilesin
the Southeast Asian country, considering future cuts in taxes on
ASEAN vehicles.
As announced early this month by Yoshihisa Maruta,
president of Toyota Motor Vietnam, the Vietnamese unit of the world’s largest
carmaker is mulling over putting an end to production and switching to
imports in order to enjoy the preferential tax treatment an ASEAN trade pact
will offer in the next three years.
ASEAN stands for Association of Southeast Asian Nations,
including
According to the road map of the ASEAN Free Trade Area
(AFTA), automobiles under ten seats imported from ASEAN countries are
entitled to a 50 percent rate this year. The rate will be cut to 40 percent
next year, 30 percent the following year, and 0 percent in 2018.
As a result, after forecasting market trends and changes
in the import tariffs, many automobile manufacturers have started moving away
from assembling to importing since last year.
Locally assembled vehicles
are getting more expensive
During a visit to the office of the Vinastar automobile
joint venture (VSM) specializing in the production of Mitsubishi vehicles in
Thu Duc District, Ho Chi Minh City this April, Tuoi Tre (Youth)
reporters found that the parking area accommodated around 200 imported
automobiles, whereas there were very few Pajero Sport cars, which were
domestically assembled.
Talking to Tuoi Tre,
Kazuhiro Yamana, VSM general manager, said his plant, which assembled many
kinds of cars in the past, now only assembles Pajero Sport cars with a
capacity of about 100 units per month.
In its heyday, the VSM’s plant churned out 410 vehicles
each month. However, as business strategies are changing, the VSM has reduced
the capacity of the plant and laid off workers.
In fiscal 2014, which started in January 2014 and ended
in March 2015, the joint venture sold 2,530 vehicles, including 1,660
vehicles, or 65.6 percent, imported from
VSM is a member of the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers'
Association (VAMA) with the highest ratio of imported cars.
Even when import tariffs increase, they said the price
of completely built units (CBUs) will be still cheaper than locally assembled
vehicles, which will consequently result in better sales.
"Our goal is to calculate how to fetch vehicles at
the lowest price to sell, either CBUs or locally assembled automobiles. Due
to various reasons, the five types of CBU we have imported for re-selling in
Yoshihisa Maruta, president of Toyota Motor Vietnam,
said at a meeting to announce the company’s operation plans for 2015 on April
2 that the Japanese carmaker could cease making automobiles in the Southeast
Asian nation and import them from other ASEAN countries to enjoy the zero
percent import duty in 2018.
Toyota Motor Vietnam currently has to import most of the
spare parts for its production in Vietnam, Maruta said, adding that there
will soon come the day when importing a complete car from Thailand is cheaper
than assembling it domestically.
The Japanese president, who is also chairman of the
VAMA, said the year 2018 will be a milestone for the carmaking industry.
The VAMA still does not know if the Vietnamese
government will have any kind of supportive policies for specific kinds of
car so that its members can focus on producing such specific automobiles for
the local market, he said at the meeting.
According to calculations by automobile manufacturers,
the price of vehicles assembled in
The reason why the price of domestically produced
vehicles is too high, reducing their competitiveness as compared to imported
automobiles, according to Yamana, is the "weird" calculation of
special consumption tax which applies to the production or importation of
specific goods and the provision of certain services.
While the tax rate for CBUs is worked out on the basis
of the CIF price inclusive of manufacturing, insurance and freight costs,
that for locally assembled vehicles is calculated based on the price at which
an automobile is sold to the dealer, including business profits, freight
charges from the place of production to the agent, and some other expenses
such as advertising.
"This methodology of tax calculation makes the
price of domestically produced cars at least five percent costlier than
CBUs,” he added.
In addition, the risk of a total halt will not only stem
from the intention of automotive businesses, but also from consumers’ demand
for imported cars, as those CBUs offer them more convenience at a cheaper
price.
Rising demand for CBUs
After a long time learning how to drive and joining the
test drives of several 4-seat automobiles assembled domestically, V.T., a
local customer living in Cau Giay District, Hanoi has decided to buy a
Mitsubishi Attrage CVT imported from Thailand at over VND600 million
($27,600).
"After I’ve tested many locally assembled cars of
some friends, I feel this imported car is more comfortable and more spacious
for utilities such as DVD players with touch screens, leather seats,
push-start buttons, smart keys, and fuel economy at a quite affordable
price," he told Tuoi Tre.
Recently, foreign-made cars have attracted a larger
number of local buyers who think that they have better quality than
domestically assembled counterparts.
The General Statistics Office (GSO) of
Both the imported volume and value of foreign-made vehicles
were the highest rates ever, the GSO said.
TUOI TRE
NEWS
|
Thứ Ba, 14 tháng 4, 2015
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