Floods will affect auto sales in October
Automobile sales in October would be affected by late delivery, following serious floods which lead to temporary halt in assembly plants and auto-parts making plants, said an executive of Toyota Motor Thailand.
"The vehicle sale would drop in October, despite high booking and an increase in production capacity in the previous months. However, the natural disaster hits many provinces particularly Ayutthaya, which hurt several car makers and parts makers. Several auto makers had to temporarily halt production due to the shortage of components and auto parts. This would result in late delivery," said Toyota Motor (Thailand) senior vice president Vudhigorn Suriyachantananont.
After July, Japanese automakers have raised production capacity to catch up with demand, as they suffered from parts shortages after the tsunami in Japan. It remains unclear whether Thailand's total automotive output would reach the 1.8 million target.
In September, according to the data compiled by Toyota, a number of 87,012 vehicles were sold, up 27.5 per cent on year. Of total, 40,685 units were passenger cars, up 29.6 per cent on year. One-tonne pickup sales rose 28.2 per cent to 40,087 units. The increases were attributed to automakers' rush to deliver vehicles, having been reserved when auto plants operated below full capacity.
In the first nine months of this year, sales hit 670,969 units, representing an increase of 20.6 per cent. While passenger car sales expanded 25 per cent, commercial vehicle sales including one-tonne pickups rose 17.2 per cent.
