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.
Vehicle 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.
