Japanese car maker Toyota has cut its local sales forecast to only 330,000 vehicles this year from 400,000 projected earlier even though it admits Thailand’s political situation has become more stable.
Kyoichi Tanada (left), president of Toyota Motor Thailand, and Shinichi Yasui, chief engineer at parent Toyota Motor Corporation, unveil the new Corolla Altis at the Bangkok International Trade & Exhibition Centre on Bang Na-Trat Road yesterday.
Kyoichi Tanada, president of Toyota Motor Thailand (TMT), said the political turmoil took a heavy toll on Thai consumers’ purchasing decisions and domestic car sales in the first half, causing a knock-on effect for full-year sales.
However, he is upbeat that prospects in the second half will improve thanks to political stability after the National Council for Peace and Order took control of the country on May 22.
For the overall market, Toyota also cut its forecast for domestic car sales this year to only 920,000 vehicles, down from 1.15 million projected earlier.
It would be the first year Thailand’s domestic automotive sales fall below 1 million vehicles after selling 1.33 million last year and 1.43 million in 2012, driven by the government's first-time car-buyer scheme.
For the first half of the year, overall domestic car sales decreased 40.5% to 440,911 vehicles, while Toyota reported yesterday its domestic sales stood at 163,997 vehicles for the period, down 30.9% year-on-year.
Toyota's passenger car sales fell by 23% to 76,440 vehicles for the first six months, while commercial vehicles also fell 36.5% to 87,557.
However, Toyota reported its shipments amounted to 230,006 vehicles, up 14.9% from the first half of 2013. It targets total shipments of 433,000 vehicles this year.
In 2013, Toyota sold 445,464 cars in the Thai market, down 13.7% from a year earlier, while exports totalled 430,929 vehicles, an increase of 6% over 2012.
Mr Tanada forecasts domestic sales will return to 1 million vehicles next year as the country will have economic growth of about 4-5%.
Despite Thailand's political problems, Toyota Motor Corporation said earlier in the year it remains committed to expanding production capacity here to 1 million vehicles a year over the next three to four years.
Toyota runs four factories here, including a 12-billion-baht facility at Gateway 2 in Chachoengsao that became fully operational at the end of 2013, with an annual production of 300,000 cars.
TMT plans to increase annual capacity by 100,000 to 200,000 cars at a cost of 15-20 billion baht a year.
Toyota's Thai factories are now running at their maximum annual capacity of 850,000 vehicles.