{"id":665556,"date":"2026-06-30T06:01:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T06:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/665556\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T06:01:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T06:01:17","slug":"bangkok-post-automotive-sector-posts-downturn-in-first-5-months","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/665556\/","title":{"rendered":"Bangkok Post – Automotive sector posts downturn in first 5 months"},"content":{"rendered":"

Domestic market shows resilience<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Automotive<\/p>\n

Thailand’s automotive industry has faced a downturn in the first five months of 2026, with car production falling by 1.13% year-on-year to 587,759 units, according to the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The decline has been largely attributed to the US\u2013Israeli war with Iran, which has disrupted global trade routes and directly affected Thailand’s vehicle exports.<\/p>\n

In May alone, production dropped by 17.9% year-on-year, totalling 114,214 units.<\/p>\n

The FTI said the closure of the Strait of Hormuz — a critical shipping lane — has severely hindered Thailand’s car exports to the Middle East, its third-largest market after Asia and Australia.<\/p>\n

Demand for pickup trucks in the region remains strong, but logistical barriers have caused a steep decline in shipments.<\/p>\n

“This marks the first time export-oriented car production has fallen below domestic output,” said Surapong Paisitpatanapong, advisor and spokesman for the FTI’s Automotive Industry Club.<\/p>\n

Car production for export fell by 36.2% year-on-year in May, with passenger car output down 22.6% and pickup truck production plunging 38.7%.<\/p>\n

Exports to the Middle East fell sharply, dropping 66.1% year-on-year in May to 59,434 units, according to the club.<\/p>\n

Oceania, including Australia, also saw a decline of 37.1%, partly due to the growing presence of Chinese battery electric vehicle (BEV) brands and Australia’s strict carbon policies aimed at achieving climate neutrality by 2040.<\/p>\n

Overall, Thailand’s car exports from January to May fell 8.53% year-on-year to 333,618 units.<\/p>\n

While exports have declined, domestic sales have shown resilience.<\/p>\n

Production for the local market rose by 12.7% in May, and overall domestic sales between January and May climbed 14.1% year-on-year to 288,242 units.<\/p>\n

In May alone, sales increased by 10.6% to 57,765 units, driven by strong demand for BEVs and sport utility vehicles. Rising global crude oil prices have further boosted interest in energy-efficient models.<\/p>\n

Despite these challenges, Mr Surapong expressed cautious optimism.<\/p>\n

He highlighted government stimulus measures, noting that the government has also revised its GDP growth forecast for 2026 to 2.3%.<\/p>\n

However, he warned that high household debt and the global slowdown triggered by the Middle East conflict remain pressing concerns for the automotive sector.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Domestic market shows resilience Thailand’s automotive industry has faced a downturn in the first five months of 2026,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":665557,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[6299,222957,84,222952,1294,222958,222954,6040,222956,4654,222951,222955,56,54,55,222953],"class_list":["post-665556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-automotive","tag-automotive-sector-downturn","tag-business","tag-car-production-statistics","tag-economy","tag-electric-vehicle-demand","tag-federation-of-thai-industries","tag-motoring","tag-pickup-truck-exports","tag-thailand","tag-thailand-automotive-industry","tag-thailand-car-market","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-vehicle-export-trends"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=665556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/665557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}