Kingdom’s carmakers curbed

[PHNOM PENH POST]

The Kingdom’s authorised car dealers said yesterday they will not meet their sales targets this year, after disasters in both Thailand and Japan disrupted global supply chains.

The worst floods in decades struck Thailand over the past few months, shutting down the manufacturing plants of bellwether car companies such as Toyota and Honda.

Japanese carmakers also suffered heavy setbacks following the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan in March.

Toyota Company (Cambodia) president Kong Noun said the resultant slowdowns in manufacturing left his firm unable to meet domestic demand, as many of the cars that TCC imports are from Thailand and Japan.

“We got a lot of orders from customers, but I did not have enough cars for them because our suppliers suspended manufacturing,” he said.

The company will now sell between 500 and 550 vehicles by year’s end, he said, although the original target was 600. Kong Noun said TCC had sold 400 vehicles through September.

TCC has received more orders in 2011 than the year before, he said, without offering a figure. Many customers who haven’t yet received their vehicles have agreed to wait until next year.

“So I believe next year we’ll see sales on the rise again,” Kong Nuon said.

Long Naith, director of Nairita Auto Care (Cambodia), which imports only new Nissan vehicles, said the company was struggling with the same problem: demand was up, while supply was constrained.

He estimated his company would sell only 60 to 70 per cent of the 400-unit target set at the beginning of the year.

“I foresee we will suffer import delays for another three months,” he said.

The import of all types of vehicles rose about 51 per cent year-on-year in the third quarter to 517,612, worth US$266 million, according to figures from the Ministry of Commerce.