Revving up: Demand for cars rising in Cambodia

[PHNOM PENH POST]

Vehicle imports to the Kingdom increased by more than 50 per cent year-on-year in the first nine months of 2011, according to Ministry of Commerce statistics.

Imports of vehicles, including cars, motorbikes and bicycles, totalled 517,612 units between January and September, from 344,036 in the period last year, the data showed. As of September, the total value of vehicle imports stood at US$266 million, a 53.7 per cent year-on-year increase from $173.1 million according to the ministry.

Kong Putheara, director of statistics at the Ministry of Commerce, this week attributed the growth to the development of the economy and lack of automobile factories in the Kingdom.

“People’s demands are growing, but we are still undersupplied. We lack heavy industrial factories to produce vehicles to meet the demand,” he said, adding that he saw a dramatic rise agricultural vehicle imports.

The majority of the vehicles were imported second-hand from Thailand, Vietnam, China, South Korea, Japan and United States, Kong Putheara said.

Toyota (Cambodia) Company Chairman Kong Nuon said the firm’s imports in the first nine months of the year were similar to the same period in 2010.

“I suspended purchase orders in April after the tsunami in Japan, but orders have finally increased again.”