Thailand's new vehicle market continued to expand in February, with sales rising by 10.3% to 75,466 units from 68,435 units a year earlier, according to data released by the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI).
This followed growth of more than 16% in January, bringing the year to date total to 142,011 vehicles – 13% higher than the 125,689 sales in 2017.
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The Thai economy continued to expand strongly, driven by rising exports and growing domestic consumption. The latest government data shows GDP expanded by 4.0% in the fourth quarter of 2017 and by 3.9% over the full year.
Toyota reported a 5.6% drop in sales to 20,327 units last month while Isuzu's sales rose by 7.7% to 13,272 units; Honda 9,129 (-6.0%); Mitsubishi 6,810 (+30.6%); Ford 5,495 (+39.1%); Mazda 5,401(+65.5%); and Nissan 5,301 (+21.7%).
Vehicle exports increased by 4.1% to 102,217 units in February and by 3.3% to 184,284 units in the first two months of the year, driven by a sharp rebound in shipments to the Middle East after two years of decline and strong demand in Asia and Australia.
This more than offset a temporary halt in exports to Vietnam after the country introduced new regulations at the beginning of the year.
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By GlobalDataVehicle production benefited from stronger domestic and overseas demand, with volume rising by 15.4% to 178,237 units last month and by 12.3% to 344,433 units year to date.
