This comes right after auto production in Thailand fell by over 17% year-on-year in December.
The Thai auto industry isn’t exactly in the pinkest of health at the moment, with the latest being for car production in the land of smiles to have recorded a year-on-year drop of 24.63% in January 2025.
According to the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI), Thailand only managed to churn out 107,103 cars last month. This gargantuan output slump comes on top of the already bleak 17.37% year-on-year drop it experienced December, and is incidentally the 18th straight month that auto production had declined over there.
The Southeast Asian country’s exports of completely built units (CBUs) were particularly hard hit in January, as it slumped by a whopping 28.13% from a year earlier to a 33-month low of 62,321 units last month. The overall value of automotive exports, including CBUs, engines, parts, motorcycles and related components, dropped 20.63% to 68 billion baht (RM 9 billion).
Concerns over trade wars, especially higher US import tariffs, and stiff competition from cheaper Chinese electric vehicles were cited as key factors for the ongoing auto production slump in Thailand. Delays in model updates and reduced production in January due to the year end holiday season also were said to be contributors towards the decline in exports last month.
Domestic auto sales meanwhile also experienced a somewhat significant 12.26% year-on-year drop to 48,092 units in January, with even the burgeoning EV sector over there seeing registrations drop by 7.73% to 14,711 units last month. The FTI has attributed this slump in sales to a combination of factors, including tighter lending conditions due to high household debt, Thailand’s sluggish GDP growth of just 2.5% in 2024 as well as reduced incomes and spending power.
Thailand is currently Southeast Asia’s biggest auto production centre, and serves as a major export base for some of the world’s top automakers like Toyota and Honda. Australia, the Philippines and Japan were the country’s top three car export markets last year.
