Thailand's automotive industry is suffering from myriad negative factors, including lower GDP growth, rising US-China trade tensions and pressure on local sales and exports, says the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI).
In August, the FTI's automotive industry club reported that local car sales totalled 80,838 units, down 6.9% from the same month a year earlier.
August sales fell by 0.3% from July and contracted for the third month in a row.
Surapong Paisitpatanapong, the club's spokesman, said some car buyers still face loan rejections from local financial institutions.
Banks have tightened loan conditions for unqualified buyers, largely for small passenger cars, he said. In August, the small passenger car segment fell by 13.3% to 25,504 units sold, while sales in the first eight months stood at 222,478 cars, down 1.5%.
Mr Surapong said sales of sport utility vehicles remained in the red last month, while pickups and pickup passenger vehicle sales began to decrease as well.
"Apart from stricter auto loan rules, local purchasing power remained lower than expected because of widespread floods and low GDP growth," he said.
The club reported auto shipments in August totalling 81,549 cars, down 20.5% from the same month last year. Export value for the period was 45.7 billion baht, down 18% year-on-year.
Car exports in August contracted for most regions, except to the Middle East.
"The economic sentiment in those regions also slowed down because of the prolonged US-China trade war," Mr Surapong said. "Car sales worldwide fell by 5.8% year-to-date while car production dropped by 5% for the period, so Thailand's car shipments also suffered from this downturn."
The contractions of local sales and exports in August pressured the country's car production, which totalled 166,361 units, down 8.2% from the same month last year.
At the global level, Thailand ranked 11th in world car production based on the country's output of 2.17 million cars in 2018, up 9% from 2017, when the country ranked 12th.
The club forecasts 2019 car output of 2.15 million units, down 0.8%.
For local sales, the club expects 1.05 million cars to be sold in 2019, up 0.8%. Car exports are seen at 1.1 million cars, down 3.6%.
Mr Surapong said the club plans to cut its projection for car exports because of the global trade dispute and a dim local sales outlook.
Car production from January to August stood at 1.40 million units, down 1.3%, largely for exports totalling 723,561 cars, down 4.1% in the period.
Shipment value in the first eight months stood at 371.23 billion baht, down 6.4%.
Local sales continued to have positive growth of 4.2% to 685,652 cars sold during January to August.