Vehicle sales in Thailand to grow 20% this year

Asian Economic News, Jan 22, 2001

BANGKOK, Jan. 16 Kyodo

The Thai subsidiary of Japan's Toyota Motor Corp. predicted optimistic prospects for vehicle sales in Thailand for 2001 with an expected growth of about 20% year-on-year despite signs of economic slowdown, the new president of Toyota Motor Thailand Co. (TMT) said Tuesday.

TMT president Ryoichi Sasaki said sales of buses, cars and trucks in Thailand for the whole of 2000 totaled 262,189 units or an increase of 20.1% from the previous year. Sales this year are projected to be 300,000-320,000 units.

''It is a reasonable forecast since the Thai gross domestic product (GDP) remains positive, growth and automobile sales have risen about 20% annually since the crisis in 1997,'' Sasaki told a news conference.

Thailand's economy is expected to be affected by the slowdown in the U.S. economy, with GDP growth estimated to be only 3.8-4.5% per year.

Sasaki, who replaced Yoshiaki Muramatsu this month, said Toyota cars could maintain their dominance of the local market share of not less than 27.2%.

Toyota car sales totaled 71,300 units last year, down 4.4% year-on-year, while other car producers had positive growth last year.

Japan's Isuzu Motors Ltd. sold a total of 57,628 units, up 10.6% year-on-year and the sales of Nissan Motor Co., also of Japan, reached 30,895 units, up 42.6%.