Thai market set for record sales

The forecast was made by Kyoichi Tanada, president of Toyota Motor Thailand, the largest auto company in the Kingdom.

He said Toyota is also building a second manufacturing plant at the Gateway Industrial Park as well as restarting the production line at Thai Auto Works that once produced the Fortuner PPV.

“The combined production capacity of the two plants will be 88,000 units per month with total investment of Bt8.2 billion,” he said.

Meanwhile, Toyota’s engine manufacturing plant has already increased its production capacity in order to meet rising demand, he added.

According to Toyota, a total of 794,081 vehicles were sold in the country last year, falling by just 0.8 per cent compared to 2010. Of this, 360,444 units were passenger cars, reflecting a growth of 4 per cent due to increased popularity of small, fuel-efficient cars, while sales of 1-ton pickups (including PPV) reached 365,636 units, down 5.7 per cent. 

Toyota sales declined in every segment, falling by 11 per cent in 2011 to 290,061 units. Sales of 1-ton pickups declined the most at 18.1 per cent to 134,970 units, while passenger car sales fell by just 2.6 per cent to 138,104.

Nevertheless it is still the market leader, followed by Isuzu with 132,194 units (down 13.5 per cent) and Honda, with both its plants being under water from November onwards, with 83,592 units (down 26.4 per cent)

“It can be seen that there is still a very high demand in Thailand’s automotive market and the demand is likely to increase in 2012. 

“With constant marketing campaigns from various brands introducing this year’s new models as well as supportive government policies, we foresee that the automobile market in Thailand will reach 1.1 million units, a record high in Thailand’s history of annual auto sales,” Tanada said.

He said in 2012, passenger car sales are expected to surge by more than 58 per cent and reach 570,000 units while sales of 1-ton pickup trucks are expected to grow by 28.4 per cent to 469,000 units.

Toyota plans to sell a total of 450,000 vehicles this year for a 40.9-per cent market share, including 214,000 passenger cars and 214,100 1-ton pickup trucks (including PPV).

Toyota’s target export sales for this year is set at 375,000 units, a 50-per-cent increase, valued at Bt157 billion as well as another Bt64.7 billion in CBU export sales, bringing total export sales to approximately Bt221.7 billion, he said.

Toyota is celebrating its 50th year in Thailand this year, and will be actively supportive of various road safety and environmental projects, he added.

Meanwhile, smaller brands such as Mazda are also celebrating a successful year, and are looking for more growth in 2012. The company was able to achieve record sales in Thailand last year despite various negative factors.

“Mazda’s performance in 2011 was better than expected, and due to the highest level of customer confidence in our brand, total sales reached 41,980 units, the highest ever achieved by Mazda Sales (Thailand) since we began operations in this country. Growth was 20 per cent compared to the 35,147 units sold in 2010, and all this points to the quality and performance of every Mazda model that is capable of responding to all our customer requirements,” Choichi Yuki, managing director of Mazda Sales (Thailand), said.

“Despite major natural disasters such as the East Japan quake and tsunami as well as the Thai flood crisis, Mazda was able to quickly recover from the market decline,” he said.

Sureethip La-Ongthong Chomthongdee, Mazda’s marketing director, said, “The past year, Thailand faced a difficult period due to the natural disasters that created both direct and indirect effects, and it had caused customers to delay purchases. 

However, there is still strong demand and we believe that from now on the automobile market will start to prosper once again, especially in the pickup truck market where competition will become more intense due to the large number of new models launched by various auto-makers during this period. Meanwhile, the small car market is also enjoying several positive factors that will help the market experience growth once again,” she said.

According to Hiroshi Nakagawa, president of Tripetch Isuzu Sales, a major commercial-vehicle maker, the Thai automobile industry has not returned to its normal state.

“Some brands are quick in restarting production such as Nissan and Mitsubishi, but not Toyota or Honda. The Isuzu plant was not flooded, but we still face supply-chain problems,” he said.

Normal production for most auto-makers should be achieved by the end of this month or early February, he said.

Presently Isuzu has 50,000 back orders for its new D-MAX pickup truck, and the waiting period is presently four months.

It plans to resume export production in mid 2012, but Nakagawa said the priority is the Thai market, which is Isuzu’s largest pickup truck market in the world.