Thai LV Sales Expected to Take Downward Trajectory

After a 22.1% jump in first-half new-vehicle sales to a record 740,795 units, the Thai market is expected to see a slump in deliveries with the full-year result dropping 9.5% compared with year-ago to 1.3 million.

Toyota Thailand, which collates national sales for the local industry, says first-half commercial-vehicle deliveries rose 11.4% to 388,744 units, while car purchases jumped 36.7% to 352,051. Within the CV segment, the 1-ton pickup market rose 6.8% to 326,195.

“The increase of domestic sales during January to April was stimulated by a pile of back orders from government’s first-car rebate program, combined with fierce sales promotion among auto makers,” Toyota Thailand President Kyoichi Tanada tells a midyear news conference.

But Tanada says the stratospheric rise in sales already has ended.

“The market’s slowdown commenced in May and will probably continue throughout the rest of this year,” he says. “It reflects that the car market is returning to its normalcy after last year’s phenomenal soar. Thus, the 2013 domestic automotive market is projected at 1.3 million units, or around a 9.5% decrease compared to the previous year.”

Toyota sees Thailand’s full-year car deliveries dropping 7.8% to 620,000 units and CV buying falling 11.0% to 680,000, with the 1-ton pickup segment down 9.2% to 605,000.

Market-leading Toyota’s first-half sales fell 1.6% to 237,318 units, with a 1.6% uptick in CV deliveries to 137,981 units not enough to offset a 5.8% drop in cars to 99,337.

Toyota is forecasting its full-year sales will decline 12.8% to a little more than 450,000 units, with cars tumbling 23.5% to 172,000 and CVs off 4.6% to 278,000. It anticipates a 5.6% slump in 1-ton pickups to 254,500.

The auto maker’s first half ended with June sales down 14.2% to 106,018 units.

Toyota continued its market dominance despite deliveries sliding 16.1% to 38,060 units, finishing June ahead of Isuzu, up 2.5% to 17,701, and Honda, down 1.2% to 17,345.

Thailand’s car segment saw June sales drop 17.7% to 49,664 units. Toyota retreated 17.9% to 16,844, but the result was good enough to surpass Honda, down 4.8% to 16,280. Nissan was a distant third with deliveries surging 49.8% to 3,674.

In the important 1-ton pickup segment, purchases tumbled 14.5% year-on-year to 47,092 units. Toyota was on top despite slipping 14.4% to 19,754 units, well ahead of Isuzu, off 1.8% to 5,349, and Mitsubishi, backsliding 48.4% to 3,665.

The first half ended with Toyota easily outpacing its pickup competitors despite a 1.6% slip to 237,318 units and a 172.1% spike by Honda to 131,458. Isuzu was third, improving 23.7% to 120,419.

In the car segment, Honda finished 2013’s first half in the lead with sales soaring 150.1% to 117,406 units, muscling past second-place Toyota and its 5.8% drop to 99,337. Nissan was third, up 3.0% to 43,534.

For Honda Thailand, the result marked its continuing comeback from the impact of natural disasters in Japan and Thailand that put its plant out of production for months in 2011.

After six months, Toyota led the 1-ton pickup segment with sales up 2.2% to 128,185 units, ahead of Isuzu, up 20.5% to 107,445, and Mitsubishi, down 22.1% to 33,470.

The two U.S. auto makers in Thailand were able to claim successes after Ford beat Chevrolet in the June sales race, but the General Motors division held on to its first-half lead.

Ford’s June sales dipped 5.9% year-over-year to 4,735 units, up 33% from May, while Chevrolet deliveries tumbled 27.4% to 4,073.

After six months, Chevrolet topped the non-Japanese segment in Thailand with deliveries down 4.3% to 30,896 units, holding off a rapidly closing Ford, up 28.3% to 27,422.

“The automotive industry is experiencing a slip in the market compared with 2012,” Gustavo Colossi, vice president-sales, marketing and aftersales for Chevrolet Sales Thailand, says in a statement.

“The government's first-car-buyer scheme last year generated a surge in retail sales that, compared with normal market growth trends, created sales growth that was significantly above average. This year, we are experiencing sales revenue that is back to the normal consumer cycle.”

Despite the market slowdown, Ford is continuing its aggressive expansion of its nationwide dealership network with the opening of two new dealerships in June. The auto maker remains on track to reach a total of 140 stores across Thailand by the end of the year.