A 27% rise in Thai car sales year on year in March pushed year-on-year first quarter sales up by 41%, with manufacturers predicting sales of at least 500, 000 vehicles this year, Xinhua News Agency reported.
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According to the report, Ninnat Chaitheeraphinyo, advisor to the Federation of Thai Industries’ automobile industry group, said that overall domestic car sales in March stood at 41,000 vehicles, a 27% rise on 2002 figures and up on the 37,769 and 39,661 vehicles sold in January and February respectively.
Overall sales for the first quarter of the year were up to around 185,000 vehicles, a 41% rise on the previous year’s sales, according to the Thai News Agency.
Annual domestic sales for the year will hit the industry’s forecast of 500,000 vehicles, with another 250,000 exported, pushing overall production to 750,000 vehicles, or 75% of total production capacity. “The increase in car sales can be attributed to low interest rates and the confidence of the Thai public in economic stimulus measures,” Ninnat noted.
Thailand’s car use is still extremely low compared to other countries. The average number of people per vehicle is 13.2, compared to 1.7 in Japan, 2.1 in the United States, 5.6 in Malaysia, and 6 in Singapore.
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By GlobalDataAs the Asian economy revives, Thailand’s car manufacturers, including Honda, Isuzu, Toyota and GM, are investing more money to use Thailand as an export base, Ninnat said, according to the report.
