Thai Automotive Industry

The National Economic and Social Development Board warned the fragile recovery in the US economy would be a key threat to the Thai economic growth this year.

Toyota Motor Thailand is gearing up to convince its parent company to pour investment into a fourth production line in Thailand.

Translating the notion of a knowledge- and creativity-based economy into practice.

American auto-maker General Motors (GM) is concerned that the new automobile excise-tax structure will not serve as a level playing field for all manufacturers.

Thailand's vehicle output from April through June could be slashed by as many as 150,000 units, leading to a Bt75billion loss in revenue, as all carmakers have to run at half capacity because of the disruption in the supply of parts from Japan.

Carmakers still cannot plan when they can run their local plants on overtime even though limited production in Japan began early this week.

Despite disrupted supply of components and parts from Japan, Thai manufacturers in the automotive and electronics sectors see only a slim chance of massive layoffs. Expecting the disruption to end soon, they realise that layoffs could create a long-term problem amid the tight labour market.

The 32nd Bangkok International Motor Show finished up successfully with the booking of over 33,000 vehicles, well above the 28,000 target. Nevertheless, as small cars ruled the show, the combined value of sold vehicles was short of the Bt40 billion target.

Local carmakers estimate the overtime stoppage begun two weeks ago in the wake of the Japanese disaster has cost them 10,000 vehicles to date, but normal production is expected to resume after next month's Songkran holiday.

Thai Stanley Electric, Thailand's largest manufacturer of lighting equipment for the automotive industry, will invest more than Bt1.8b in a new manufacturing plant to produce lights for eco-cars.