Asian Honda Motor witnessed a 37 per cent year-on-year decline in export value, when the value in the first nine months totalled Bt51.46 billion. However, the third quarter result, worth Bt20 billion, showed an improvement from the previous two quarters with a 21 per cent drop, compared to 40 per cent and 46 per cent in the previous two quarters. Honda estimates that exports in the last quarter will continue to improve which should push the annualised value past Bt70 billion. At the amount, it represented a 32 per cent drop from last year.
Fumihiko Ike, president & CEO, Asian Honda Motor said “Our third quarter performance represents a significant improvement as the global economic situation started to recover. Meanwhile, we are continuing to develop new products in order to ensure our competitiveness in the global market. Last September Honda launched the new PCX scooter model in Thailand as a world premier. Thailand will soon begin production and export of this model to many leading countries worldwide. This is further proof of Thailand’s competitiveness as the global manufacturing base.”
Meanwhile, the Federation of Thai Industries’ Automobile Club reported on Tuesday that Thailand’s automobile output in September reached 100,000 units for the first time in 12 months, suggesting the growing demand in domestic and export markets.
The auto industry is estimated to contribute about 10 per cent to Thailand’s gross domestic product. In the first 9 months, the total value of Honda’s automobile CBU and CKD exports declined 39 per cent to Bt31.78 billion baht. Total exports of automobile products in the third quarter valued Bt13.24 billion, down 17 per cent from the same period last year.
To the company, the latest figure shows that the export situation is improving, particularly CKD components which rose 3 per cent on year to Bt6.8 billion, thanks to an increase in production volume in many Asian countries. Honda exported a total of 30,052 units to over 40 countries worldwide in the first 9 months. City is the most successful export model representing 11,505 units, followed by 7,484 units of Civic and 5,189 units of Jazz. These 3 models account for 80.5 per cent of the total volume.
