The organisation adds that sales in Indonesia also decelerated on the back of exceptionally high demand last year. As a result, overall sales registered at below 248k units in September.

As a result, the annual sales projection for 2014 was cut marginally to just above 3.05 million units to better reflect the current momentum, representing a 9% decrease in year‐on‐year (YoY) terms.

On a country‐by‐country basis, Thailand continued to lead in terms of volume declines during September, with a drop of 28%. Monthly sales stood below 66k units from almost 92k units last year. LMCA said that it does not see any sign of recovery, as has been widely speculated. Projected sales are expected to reach 847k units, representing only a slight increase of less than 3k units.

Sales in Indonesia also fell by 9% to reach 96k units, although the firm said this drop can be attributed to an exceptionally high base in YoY terms. Sales remained strong on the back of LCGC models and low‐ cost MPVs. However, LMCA does not believe that the market is as dynamic as it has been and it has cut its annual projection by almost 5k units to around 1.14 million to reflect the market deceleration.

Sales in Malaysia also contracted by a considerable 14% as buyers failed to purchase new vehicles, with the expectation of two major new models: the Perodua Axia and the Proton Iriz. Sales in September reached just 47k, while the performance for the remainder of the year will depend largely on both OEM’s ability to fulfil the demand for these two new models. LMCA currently projects annual sales of around 656k units, which is lower than the firm’s previous projection by 2k units.

Sales in the Philippines and Vietnam continued to thrive, although volumes were far lower than previously. Sales in September grew by roughly 50% YoY in both markets, reaching around 23k units and 16k units, respectively.

While LMCA raised the annual outlook slightly for the Philippines by almost 2k units to around 263k units, it has retained our forecast for Vietnam at around 141k units. Both projections represent increases of almost 30% from 2013.