Domestic vehicle production output reached 5 million units this year, nearly doubling the market demand. However, companies still expanded their scale with expectation to turn Vietnam into one of the largest motorbike manufacturing countries in the world.
Though motorcycle manufacturers’ turnover decreased drastically recently, manufacturing capabilities increased sharply. As per a statistic, the companies have produced nearly 5 million a year. Furthermore, many manufacturers have continued expanding scale.
Honda Vietnam has recently put into operation of the third motorbike factory with capacity of 500,000 units a year. Similarly, Yamaha has also spent nearly US$30 million on its factory to raise its manufacturing capability to 1.5 million vehicles per year.
Along with expansion of scale, the companies have introduced more new vehicles to promote local consumption. In addition, they have also raised export of vehicles and vehicle parts. For instance, since the second quarter this year Honda Vietnam has achieved export turnover of nearly US$ 200 million. The company has expected to reach US$247 million for export in 2014.
The manufacturers have explained the turnover decreases was due to the economic crisis and consumers tightened spending. They have predicted that in the coming years motorcycle consumption would increase as the world economy recovered. Vietnam has many advantages including reasonable labor prices which help strengthen its competition against other countries.
Economist Bui Hai Minh said that Japanese, South Korean and China's Taiwanese enterprises have transferred vehicle production technologies to Vietnam through investing in motorbike accessories. In addition, Vietnam is located in the world’s largest motorbike consumption region.
Annually, around 43 million motorbikes are sold in the world; of which, 10 million, 5 million and 5 million motorbikes are sold in China; India and Indonesia respectively.
So Vietnam can become one of the largest motorcycle manufacturer with the export turnover of US$ 500 million every year, said Mr. Minh.
