Vehicle sales in Thailand are expected to fall 9.5% to 1.3m vehicles this year, according to Toyota’s local unit which added that sales were returning to normal after a surge sparked by a government subsidy.
The first half sales tally by all manufacturers was 740,795 cars, Kyoichi Tanada, president of Toyota Motor Thailand, told a news conference. This was up 22% from the same period a year ago.
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“The market slowdown commenced in May,” Tanada said, adding it was likely to continue for the rest of the year.
In January, Toyota had said it expected Thai car sales to drop 16% to 1.2m vehicles this year after an 80% surge in 2012.
Toyota Thailand forecast its own sales would rise 12.8% to 450,000 vehicles with sales of passenger cars down 23.5%.
The carmaker plans to spend THB12bn (US$386m) in Thailand this year to build a second plant to produce environmentally friendly cars and vehicles for export.
The plant will boost the firm’s annual capacity at the Gateway industrial park to 300,000 vehicles per year from 220,000.
Apinont Suchewaboripont, TMT senior vice president, said. “Our second Gateway plant is currently in the process of installing machinery and will definitely be ready for production by the third quarter of 2013.”
Toyota Motor Thailand currently produces more than 800,000 vehicles a year and is the largest car manufacturer in Thailand.
