Thailand vehicle production up 43%

The Thai Federation of Industries expects vehicle production to jump 43 percent in the first quarter of 2013, and a government official recently stated that Thailand could build 2.8 million vehicles this year, up from 2.4 million last year.

“This would enable car and truck production in Thailand to leapfrog past assemblies in Canada,” Gomes wrote. He suggests the country could be making 3 million cars a year by 2015. Gomes’s assessment jibes with official data from the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers, which shows Canada barely held on to its No. 10 overall ranking last year, with 2,463,732 Canadian-built vehicles. Thailand built 2,483,043 vehicles in 2012, good enough for ninth overall.

China remains the world’s largest car manufacturer

Indeed, Canada has seen its share of the global market slowly erode in recent years. While China remains the world’s largest car manufacturer, building 19.2 million cars last year, America held on to second place with 10.3 million vehicles. Canada was the second-largest North American producer for decades, before Mexico eclipsed Canada following the recession. Mexico built just over three million cars last year, good enough for 8th in the world. Overall, carmakers built more than 84 million cars all over the world last year. 

In 2011, 1.46 million vehicles were manufactured in Thailand, ranking Thailand 14th among the world’s automotive manufacturing countries. According to the Thai Automotive Institute, production is predicted to reach 2.2 million units in 2012, 50% produced for domestic sale and 50% for export.

“Thailand is expected to produce 2 million cars in 2012 and is expected to achieve 3 million units by 2015 – placing it among the world’s top 10 auto producing countries. The economic opening of Myanmar could propel Thailand’s ascension into the world’s top 10 auto producing countries even faster by increasing regional demand as it looks to upgrade its older cars.”

 -Dr. Patima Jeerapaet, President of Thailand Automotive Institute-