Honda Automobile (Thailand) remains bullish on vehicle and parts shipment this year despite the economic slowdown in China.
According to chief operating officer Pitak Pruittisarikorn, the Japanese car maker is studying the feasibility of beefed-up exports of Thai-made Honda vehicles to new destinations to keep shipment growth on track in 2016.
He did not give a growth target for this year, saying the company must talk to Bangkok-based Asian Honda Motor Co, which is in charge of exporting vehicles, motorcycles, engines and related parts.
Honda has not ruled out possible headwinds, especially China's cloudy economic picture.
Mr Pitak voiced concern about the impact on Thai automotive exports from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a trade alliance that Thailand has not joined.
"At present, Thailand has yet to lose much competitiveness against the four Asean countries that joined the TPP," Mr Pitak said, referring to Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam.
"The pact will deliver a huge impact to Thailand once Vietnam and Malaysia develop their own automotive industries to support TPP members or Indonesia has a policy to join the trade pact."
Honda announced yesterday that its automobile exports from Thailand last year reached 83.1 billion baht in value, up 19% from 2014.
Of the total value, Thai-made completely built-up (CBU) exports increased by 44% in value to 37.9 billion baht.
Continuous growth is being driven by strong demand for Honda models in countries such as Australia and Mexico.
The City, HR-V and CR-V are the top export models, accounting for 70% of total export units.
Completely knocked-down (CKD) exports rose by 5% in value to 40.4 billion baht in 2015.
From the Thai production base, Honda also exports supporting products such as spare parts, accessory parts and moulds for production lines.
Exports of spare parts and accessory parts rose by 30% in value to 3.4 billion baht, driven by increasing demand in Malaysia, Australia and India.
In a related development, Honda's second plant at Rojana Industrial Park in Prachin Buri is scheduled to begin vehicle production in the first quarter of 2016.
The 17.2-billion-baht facility will have an annual production capacity of 120,000 vehicles.
Honda's first facility at Rojana Industrial Park in Ayutthaya has an annual production capacity of 300,000 vehicles.