Thai domestic vehicles sales fell by 13% year-on-year in August to 47,130 units, according to data compiled by domestic distributor Tri Petch Isuzu Motor. Political uncertainty continues to undermine consumer and business sentiment and the strong sales growth earlier in the year is gradually being reversed.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
The market in August was driven lower by continued weakness in the pickup truck segment, with small rural businesses affected more than most by the disruption caused by a growing campaign to oust the government from power. Sales of pickup trucks, including passenger-vehicle derivatives (PPVs), fell by 28.6% to 24,739 units – from 34,659 units a year earlier.
While the cost of diesel fuel began to drop last month, prices remain very high by historic standards at around 32 baht/litre. The expectation is that prices will rise further in the long term, despite government efforts to promote bio-fuel production. Pickup trucks are typically powered by 2.5-3.0L engines and are mostly bought by small business owners for both business and private use.
Vehicle sales rose by 3.9% 413,376 units in the first eight months of 2008, compared with 397, 817 units a year earlier. In the first-half of the year, sales were up almost 10% at 321,475 units. Toyota sold a total of 176,815 vehicles in the eight-month period, to claim a market share of 42.8%, followed by Isuzu with 90,609 units (21.9%); and Honda with 55,890 units (13.5%).
Car sales in the January-August period rose by 30.2% to 147,690 units, underpinned by growing demand for fuel-efficient vehicles and by strong sales of the new Corolla Altis model. The replacement of the popular Honda City in September should help drive further growth. The company depends mostly on the passenger car segment and has just revised upwards its Thai sales forecasts for the current year by 20%.
Pickup based vehicles still represent the largest segment in the Thai auto market, though sales fell by 7.4% to 221,362 units in the first eight months of the year – even with a 8.3% increase in PPV sales. Toyota bucked the trend with a 3.9% increase in pickup sales to 94,856 units; followed by Isuzu’s with 85,734 sales, up by 19%; Nissan 16,732 (-8.9%); Mitsubishi 13,545 (+3%); Chevrolet 6,405 (-2%); and Mazda 5,302 (-22%).
Tony Pugliese
