April was a positive month for Vietnam’s auto sales, though carmakershave claimed difficulties conducting business in the country's unstableand undeveloped automobile industry.

The month'ssales figures released by the Vietnam Automobile ManufacturersAssociation (VAMA) showed that nearly 18,200 units were sold in thedomestic market, marking an increase of 11 percent from March this yearand 60 percent from the same period last year.

Atotal of 9,423 passenger cars and 8,755 commercial vehicles were sold inApril. Domestic carmakers assembled 13,980 units, 9 percent higher thanthe previous month, while 4,198 units were imported, a rise of 19percent compared with the month before.

The Aprilfigures have helped increase the total sale of more than 66,900 units inthe first four months of this year, up by 62 percent versus last year.

Of the total sales, VAMA members together sold16,643 units, 9 percent and 65 percent more than they did in March thisyear and April last year, respectively. The figures brought the totalsales to 57,477 units in the first four months of this year, 68 percenthigher than the same period last year.

The TruongHai Automobile JSC (Thaco) is one of the major automakers to take thelead in the market; with 36.9 percent market share and selling 21,324cars in the four months, it made a year-on-year gain of 97 percent.

Toyota Motor Vietnam retained its second position with 25.9 percentmarket share and a growth of 43 percent compared with the same periodlast year. Ford Vietnam took the third and Honda managed the fourthposition with 9.7 percent and 4.2 percent market share, respectively.-VNA