Vehicle exports are likely to drop for a second straight year after growth figures remained in negative territory for 12 months in a row, says the Federation of Thai Industries.
The FTI's automotive industry club yesterday released its monthly report for June, which saw vehicle exports fall by 13% to 93,086 units with a contraction in every continent.
Export value fell by 13.6% to 49.7 billion baht, according to club spokesman Surapong Paisitpatanapong.
From January to June, exports stood at 536,406 vehicles, down 9.8% year-on-year, while export value fell by 11.1% to 283.6 billion baht.
"Only shipments to Oceania and North America remained healthy in the first half of 2017," Mr Surapong said. "In the big picture globally, the economic situation in some regions has not performed well, so this negative factor is keeping pressure on Thai auto exports."
He said the club will revise down its 2017 vehicle shipment forecast to 1.077-1.088 million units from the earlier 1.2 million after exports has fell for the second straight year.
Car exports started to fall in 2016, when the figure fell by 1.4% to 1.188 million units. But 2016 export value rose by 6.6% to 631.9 billion baht, thanks to increased shipments of high-priced passenger pickup vehicles.
"As a matter of fact, our vehicle exports have faced a bearish outlook since early 2016 up to now," Mr Surapong said. "However, we expected the situation to bottom out in 2017."
The club reported that domestic car sales rose by 5.7% to 69,794 units in June, thanks to better market sentiment spurred by several new car models.
From January to June, domestic sales totalled 409,976 vehicles, up 11.2% year-on-year.
"The club is still confident that domestic sales will show a positive trend throughout 2017, with sales increasing for the first time in five years to above 800,000 units," Mr Surapong said.
Domestic sales last year totalled 768,788 vehicles, down 3.9%, for a fourth straight yearly decline.
With the fragile export outlook, the club expects to revise down its car production forecast to 1.9 million units from 2 million.
Hefty sales at home should help offset a decline in exports, Mr Surapong said.
The FTI said car output in June fell by 2.5% to 175,443 units, largely due to a drop in production of passenger cars for export of 19.6% to 36,891 units. In addition, output of pickup trucks for domestic sale fell by 2.5% to 36,193 units.
Overall output in the first half reached 950,966 units, down 4.3% year-on-year.