Published on January 13, 2006

Toyota expects its share of the Thai automobile market to grow further and exceed 40 per cent this year, despite its own forecast that the total market will grow by only 5 per cent. Toyota’s market growth forecast of only 5 per cent would give 2006 the lowest annual growth in the local automobile industry for more than five years.

However, Toyota Motor Thailand president Ryoichi Sasaki said the forecast was a conservative one and it was natural that growth would fall to a reasonable level as the industry completed its recovery from the 1997 economic crisis.

Riding on the recovery of the Thai auto market, Toyota, under Sasaki’s leadership, has increased its market share from between 27 per cent and 28 per cent six years ago to about 35 per cent in 2004, and again to a surprising 39.5 per cent last year.

Speaking to reporters at the opening of Toyota’s Bt200 million “edutainment centre” in Siam Square yesterday, Sasaki said the company aimed to improve its market share to 40 per cent with the launching of more new autos this year.

“My short-term target for market share is 40 per cent, but how much more we can improve it beyond that, I don’t know,” he said. “Forty per cent, by itself, is very high – one of the highest [auto market shares] in the world. In Japan, excluding the mini-car segment, our market share is 30 per cent. If sales of Daihatsu and Hino are included, our market share there might be 40 per cent.

“I’m very proud and happy,” he added.

Sasaki said the Thai automobile market had fully recovered from the financial crisis and, from now on, annual growth would be a steady 5-10 per cent.

Last year was the first in 23 years that Toyota had achieved leadership in both the commercial vehicle and passenger-car segments in Thailand, as well as becoming the country’s biggest automobile exporter – thanks to its IMV (innovative multi-purpose vehicles) project, which commenced last year, spawning the popular Vigo and Fortuner models.

The Kingdom’s biggest auto-maker has predicted that the local market will grow by only 5 per cent this year, reaching 735,000 units.

Because of several new products that car companies plan to launch this year, Toyota projects the passenger-car segment will grow by 13.8 per cent, after suffering a 12.7-per-cent drop last year. On the other hand, it believes the pickup segment, which grew by more than 30 per cent last year, will expand by only 0.2 per cent in 2006.

Toyota expects to sell a total of 295,000 units this year, up 6 per cent from 2005. The company aims to sell 106,000 passenger cars for a market share of 49.5 per cent, and 180,000 pickups for a share of 38.2 per cent. The rest will be non-pickup commercial vehicles.

Sasaki said the pickup truck market had grown much faster than anyone expected last year and its share of the total automobile market now exceeds 60 per cent.

With regard to exports, Toyota expects to sell 230,000 vehicles in overseas markets this year, up by more than 51 per cent over 2005. Their value will be Bt99 billion. The figure excludes the export of original equipment manufacture and service parts, which the company expects will be worth Bt53 billion, up 15 per cent from last year.

This year, the company plans to produce a total of 510,000 vehicles, up 23 per cent over last year, retaining its leadership in both export and domestic sales.

Pichaya Changsorn

The Nation

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