Political strife within the Thai government hasn’t slowed down vehicle sales in the Kingdom. In April, General Motors reported a 62% jump in sales to 1,879 vehicles compared to 1,162 units in the same month last year. With this rise in demand, GM is toying with the idea of increasing output at its Rayong factory to 76,000 vehicles per annum and to invest US$467 million to upgrade facilities and build a new diesel engine plant.
The gains are not just for GM, as even Toyota, who recently suspended production at one of its plants, increased deliveries by 43% to 92,000 units. Isuzu, another big pick-up truck player, has reported a 44% jump to 46,071 units sold. These figures are year-to-date, as of end April. According to the Automotive Industry Club, general vehicle output has increased by 129% from a year earlier to 150,119 vehicles.
Ray Young, GM’s vice president of international operations, is concerned about the current political crisis but reiterated his company’s confidence in our northern neighbour. “We are monitoring the situation in Thailand, but we remain optimistic. Our business and expansion plans will continue in Thailand without delays. The nation will remain the leading automotive market in the ASEAN region,” he said.
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Give me a Chevy Cruze!
not fair
Ya, not fair. But at least Penang is getting the tourists who initially wanted to go to Thailand. :-)
The living proof that NAP is useless and we lost to Thai as the region automotive hub.
Agree. Thailand is also known as oriental Detroit.
you should know, now Detroit is a sinking and dying city. Abandoned everywhere btw.
Detroit was filled with automotive giants because there are many oil well there a hundred years ago.
this sales in thailand only or rise in manufacturing??? if thrs a rise in manufacturing,thn thailand supply to most of southeast asia so the number is kinda misleading , unless the rise refers to the sales in thailand itself…..
back to NAP , well , wats thr to say that we havent said b4….
Sales…it’s talking about sales.
The political situation only changed drastically last week. Until then, it was just rallies & demonstrations in central BKK. All other parts of BKK was unaffected. (Just like our 99′ DSAI demo in downtown KL, those of us in PJ was totally unaffected)
Vehicle sales, dominated by pick up trucks, are from all over Thailand. So what if BKK sales dip, the rest of Thailand was still unaffected by the political turmoil. Go visit Phuket & it’s biz as usual. Heck, go outskirts of BKK & it’s also biz as usual.
What is most interesting is to see the Year on Year trend for May & June, as the implications for the crackdown will be felt then.