Strong June Brightens Thailand’s Full-Year Outlook

A 7.6% jump in June sales to 64,900 units helped Thailand’s auto industry recover to just a 0.4% decline in first-half sales, leading to a revision of the full-year forecast.

Toyota Thailand, which collates sales for the industry, says the June result raised deliveries for the first six months of the year to 367,481 units.

President Kyoichi Tanada tells a news conference the automaker in response has amended its sales projection for the full year to 740,000 units, a 7.5% drop.  It’s a slight improvement on its January forecast of a 10% slip to 720,000 units.

Last year the Thai market dropped 9.3% to 799,594 deliveries.

First-half 2016 saw new-car sales fall 12.6% to 128,310, while commercial vehicles rose 7.6% to 239,171 units. Within the CV segment, 1-ton pickup deliveries climbed 12.2% to 192,558 units.

Tanada says Thailand’s auto-sales outlook for this year is positive in some aspects.

“We expect positive impacts from tourism and the service industry, as well as continued spending by the government to stimulate investments from the private sector and new entries by various car makers, which will positively affect the outlook of the national economy and Thai auto market,” he says in a statement emailed to WardsAuto.

“However, the ongoing economic slowdown, limited purchasing power and an unstable global economic outlook mean time is needed before we see a recovery in the auto market.”

Toyota predicts Thailand’s full-year car sales will fall 9.5% to 271,000 units with CVs off 6.3% at 469,000. Within the CV segment, it sees 1-ton pickup deliveries falling 4.5% to 379,000 units.

Toyota remained the big fish in a shrinking pool, as its first-half sales fell 11.4% to 109,078 units. This kept it comfortably ahead of Isuzu, which rose 4.3% to 72,292 units, ahead of Honda, down 1.5% at 53,952.

The car segment saw Honda slip 0.2% but remain No.1 in the segment with 38,705 deliveries.

Longtime leader Toyota plunged 33.0% to 35,700 units, while Mazda was up 22.9% at 13,500.

Toyota clung to its lead in the CV segment, rising 5.1% to 73,378 units, just ahead of Isuzu, up 4.3% at 72,292. Mitsubishi was a distant third, up 30.4% to 20,613 units, all 1-ton pickups.

Within this, Toyota led 1-ton pickup sales at the halfway mark, up 8.1% at 69,678 units, outdistancing Isuzu, up 4.1% at 65,773.

The first half ended with Toyota topping the June sales charts, down 2.1% at 21,363 units for a 32.9% market share, ahead of Isuzu, up 3.1% at 11,173, with Honda up 26.3% at 10,003.

Car sales rose 15.6% to 24,600 units, with Toyota up 5.1% at 7,851; Honda ahead 48.2% at 7,436; and Mazda down 0.7% at 2,055.

The CV segment improved 3.2% to 40,300 units last month, with Toyota struggling to remain No.1. Toyota’s sales fell 5.9% to 13,512 units, as Isuzu rose 3.1% to 11,173 units while Ford deliveries jumped 80.4% to 3,575.

The 1-ton pickup market rose 5.9% in June to 32,068 units with Toyota in the lead despite a 4.5% slip to 12,844 units. Isuzu rose 2.5% to 10,004 units, with Ford surging 92.3% to 3,307.

Tanada says Thai government support, including measures that stimulated economic growth, helped the auto market get close to where it was at the halfway stage last year.

“We particularly hope to have the support of the government in the promotion of alternative fuel vehicles with advanced innovations which will play an important role in driving the future of mobility in society,” he says.

Toyota Thailand predicts it will finish 2016 with sales of 240,000 units (32.4% market share), comprising 85,000 cars (31.4% share) and 155,000 CVs (33.0%) including 145,400 1-ton pickups (38.4%).

Toyota’s 2016 exports are projected to drop 17% to 312,000 units after an unexpected fall in orders from Middle Eastern countries.

The automaker earlier announced a voluntary early-retirement program for assembly-plant employees because of production cuts. If the market improves, those who accept the offer will be given priority in returning to their old jobs, with the same salary and seniority.