Thai Sales Up on Strength of CV Market

The Thai new-vehicle market pushes higher for the first time this year and only the third time in the past 36 months, rising 1.7% to 54,986 units in April.

Toyota Thailand, which collates national data for the Thai industry, reports commercial-vehicle deliveries rose 12.1% to 34,299 units, the third increase in as many months, more than enough to offset an 11.9% fall in passenger-vehicle sales to 20,687. The 1-ton pickup segment jumped 22.2% to 27,628.

The result left the 4-month total down 6.1% at 236,546 units.

Toyota Vice President Vudhigorn Suriyachantananont says the popularity of new models helped grow the CV segment, ad did government stimulus measures to boost the country’s investment climate.

“However, buying power is not yet fully expanded,” Vudhigorn says in a statement.

“The May outlook is stable,” he adds. “The promotion and the introduction of new car models are positives for the market. However, the consumer confidence index for April also fell over concerns about global economic uncertainty.

“The impact of private investment continues to slow and the drought is affecting the purchasing power overall.”

Toyota topped the April results, rising 12.4% to 14,895 units. Isuzu gained 2.4% to 11,949 and Honda was up 5.9% to 9,109.

The passenger-vehicle segment saw Honda remain on top, up 14.3% at 6,986 units, keeping longtime segment leader Toyota in second, down 19.1% at 5,643, ahead of Mazda, posting a 6.9% rise to 2,197.

Isuzu led the CV segment in April, with deliveries up 2.4% to 11,949 units. Toyota sales soared 47.5% to 9,252 and Ford took third place with sales up 29.9% to 2,591.

Within the CV segment, Isuzu led the important 1-ton pickup category, gaining 2.4% to 10,871 units, ahead of Toyota, up 60.8% to 8,852, and Mitsubishi, down 5.6% to 2,531.

With four months of the year in the books, passenger-vehicle sales are down 23.2% to 78,660 units, while CV volume is up 5.7% at 157,886.

Despite the gradual improvement in sales, the Federation of Thai Industries group tells the Bangkok Post it is not changing its full-year forecast. It still expects sales to fall anywhere from 2.5% to 6.2% from last year and come in at between 750,000 and 780,000 units.

Group spokesman Surapong Paisitpatanapong says the government’s stimulus measures, launched late last year, should drive positive momentum in the industry.

“Greater speed of investment budget disbursement by the government can play a significant role in recovery,” he tells the newspaper.

Thailand’s vehicle exports fell 5.4% in the first four months to 388,251 units.

In another sign of changing fortunes, German carmakers Volkswagen and BMW announced they are setting up international purchasing offices in Thailand to procure auto parts to serve their worldwide operations worldwide.

Noshir Desai, general manager for procurement at VW Group’s ASEAN regional office, says VW is moving its purchasing office from Kuala Lumpur in August because Thailand is home to about 700 companies supplying VW, compared with 200 in Malaysia.

Carsten Mueller-Deiters, head of purchasing for BMW Group Thailand, tells the Bangkok Post his company’s international purchasing office will open June 1 as part of a plan to increase exports to 10,000 cars annually, mainly to China.