Thai industry-wide auto sales may slide as much as 15% this year

By REUTERS | 5 October 2015


BANGKOK: Thailand's industry-wide auto sales could fall as much 15% in 2015 and mark a third consecutive year of sales declines, according to Toyota Motor Corp's Thai unit.

Toyota had initially forecast auto sales would rise 4.3% this year to around 920,000 vehicles but lowered that estimate to 800,000 in July before cutting it again today to between 750,000 and 760,000 vehicles.

"The domestic economy has been (a problem) for us for a while. However, the global economy has been worse than expected and has had an impact on this market," Kyoichi Tanada, president of the Toyota Thai unit, told reporters.

In 2014, industry-wide domestic auto sales tumbled 33.7% to 881,832 vehicles, hit by political unrest including a May coup by the army that year. In 2013, sales fell after a government subsidy scheme for first-time car buyers ended.

Toyota, which commands about a third of the Thai market, cut its own sales target to 265,000 units in 2015 from 280,000 vehicles projected in July and 330,000 projected in January.

Last month, Thailand's central bank cut its 2015 economic growth forecast to 2.7% from 3.0% due to weakness in exports.

Keywords