Thailand becoming more important as a car export hub
While the news for most of this year has been about the fact that too many cars were sold last year domestically and that auto manufacturers were going to suffer tremendously. What we’ve seen is that yes there has been a slowdown in domestic purchases and Thailand’s car exports continue to grow strongly and with more expansion expected by Honda, Toyota and Ford expected here, the auto cluster is only going to get bigger here.
Car exports hit an all time high in September, with 118,253 units sent abroad, Surapong Paisitpatanapong, spokesman for the Automotive Industry Club, said on Thursday. In August, the club reported that auto exports were the highest in the 25 years of the industry sector with 103,065 vehicles shipped out. But exports for September were up 16.76% on the same month last year and 13.47% on August. The value of the exports for the month stood at 52.34 billion baht, up 7.08% year on year, said Mr Surapong. Exports over the first nine months of 2013 totalled 874,341 units, up 14.22% year on year, while the value of exports in the period was up 7.88% to stand at 383.67 billion baht.
Source: Bangkok Post