Thai May domestic car sales tumble 54.12% year-on-year - industries federation

[webfact]

Thai May domestic car sales tumble 54.12% year-on-year - industries federation

 

FILE PHOTO: An employee walks among vehicles at AutoAlliance Thailand, a Ford and Mazda joint venture plant, located in Rayong province, east of Bangkok September 17, 2013. REUTERS/Chaiwat Subprasom

 

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Domestic car sales in Thailand shrank for a 12th straight month in May, down 54.12% from a year earlier to 40,418 vehicles, as the coronavirus outbreak hurt demand, the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) said on Thursday.

 

Sales in April plunged 65.02% from a year earlier.

 

Thailand is a regional vehicle production and export base for the world's top automobile manufacturers.

 

(Reporting by Kitiphong Thaichareon; Writing by Orathai Sriring; Editing by Ed Davies)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-06-18

 

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[BritManToo]

Does than mean no 3 month wait anymore when you buy a new car?

[Mr Meeseeks]

Wait a few more months until folk are really desperate and wait for the repossessions and panic sales. 

 

A correction in the second hand vehicle market is long overdue and looks like it is now inevitable. 

[DeeMoney]

22 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Does than mean no 3 month wait anymore when you buy a new car?

 

There has never been a 3 month wait, generally speaking. If you had to wait for months or heard of stories of people waiting for months, it is because they were buying a car that was just released and selling like hot cakes. For example, new D-Max, new Camry, new Honda City, etc. But if someone went to a Nissan dealer and told them they want a Navara right here right now, it is ready to be taken home within a few hours.

 

 

12 minutes ago, Mr Meeseeks said:

Wait a few more months until folk are really desperate and wait for the repossessions and panic sales. 

 

A correction in the second hand vehicle market is long overdue and looks like it is now inevitable. 

 

Used car market is indeed overpriced but it is because Thailand still has a high demand for vehicles. In terms of vehicles per 100,000 people, Thailand is still way behind countries where used cars are cheap. In those countries, most people already have a car, so when a used car is put onto the market, nobody wants it. It has to rely on people looking to replace their cars, which is the way the market has worked for decades.

 

In Thailand, a lot of used cars are still being bought by people who have never owned a vehicle.

[ThailandRyan]

If the market is so soft why have prices increased.....wait TIT.  Now I get it.

[JonnyF]

Trillian (Saengd) will be along in a moment to tell us this is great news for the Thai economy. ????

 

Seriously though, 54% down, that's massive. Hopefully we get some good news soon or there will be more layoffs at the factories.

[BobbyL]

That is a huge number. Will this impact the ridiculous market prices here? I doubt it. 

[sammieuk1]

Not so much crashing in the last 3 months and as sales fall through the floor up goes the baht ????

[ThailandRyan]

2 minutes ago, sammieuk1 said:

Not so much crashing in the last 3 months and as sales fall through the floor up goes the baht ????

Begs to be believed doesn't it

[Mr Meeseeks]

1 hour ago, DeeMoney said:

Used car market is indeed overpriced but it is because Thailand still has a high demand for vehicles. In terms of vehicles per 100,000 people, Thailand is still way behind countries where used cars are cheap. In those countries, most people already have a car, so when a used car is put onto the market, nobody wants it. It has to rely on people looking to replace their cars, which is the way the market has worked for decades.

 

In Thailand, a lot of used cars are still being bought by people who have never owned a vehicle.

That may well have been true twenty years ago, but now there are used car lots everywhere and a glut of used cars on the market.

 

Most Thais will go with a bike rather than a car for conveyance, and use a car or pickup for business or as an asset. They will also pay more for vehicles because paying a lot for something means gaining face and they have bragging rights to their friends. Conversely they will not sell under market value because they don't want to lose face.

 

The market is long overdue for a correction, a reality check if you will and it will come later this year of that I guarantee once the glut of repossessions and panic sales kick in due to the inevitable economic downturn. 

 

 

[Mr Meeseeks]

30 minutes ago, BobbyL said:

That is a huge number. Will this impact the ridiculous market prices here? I doubt it. 

There will be a point, later on this year, when an unskilled and barely employable Somchai gets laid off and realises he can't make the 12,000thb payment on his pickup this month and he spent everything on worthless tat like ridiculous go-faster stripes and titanium-look exhaust pipes for his agricultural diesel vehicle. Let's be honest, most Thais are so indebted on these worthless machines that they literally can't catch a breath. 

 

The borrowing will increase as they frantically try to hold onto their possessions rather than accept the inevitable. Loan upon loan, compounded and impossible to repay. Thinking it will all just go back to normal next month... borrow from wherever or whomever is daft enough to lend. Financial institutions wont, so it will be family, friends then mafia in that order. 

 

Cannot... lose... face... and... go... back... to... the... scooter...

 

Then the crash will come as it will be unsustainable. 

 

Loan sharks all over the place repossessing vehicles that were put up as collateral for loans and gambling debts. They won't be as forgiving or as lenient as the banks. 

 

Normal folk turning to crime, drugs and gambling.

 

I think this is now inevitable. Hope I am wrong but that's a rarity.

 

????

Edited June 18, 2020 by Mr Meeseeks

[NCC1701A]

I heard BMW sales are up.

 

The Immigration Police smart car option package is very popular. 

[mommysboy]

2 hours ago, Mr Meeseeks said:

Wait a few more months until folk are really desperate and wait for the repossessions and panic sales. 

 

A correction in the second hand vehicle market is long overdue and looks like it is now inevitable. 

I imagine the same will go for property too. and electrical goods.

[Mr Meeseeks]

12 minutes ago, mommysboy said:

I imagine the same will go for property too. and electrical goods.

I certainly think so. Businesses too.

 

This is going to shake a lot of people out in the next few months. 

[Grumpy John]

Repos will go to Union or Motto to be sold off, not to the highest bidder but for the set reserve the banks/finance companies have put on.  Over the years I have been here there has been no shortage of bikes or cars going thru. I had been buying and selling vehicles in Australia before I landed here which worked well for me but on looking at how the local market works the amount of money to be made by me doing what I had always done was just not there.  Over a period of time I did track some units that seemed to be showing up every week for many weeks but sometimes they sold for little more than what they had passed in at in the previous weeks.  I thought it was strange!

[Deli]

17 minutes ago, NCC1701A said:

I heard BMW sales are up.

 

The Immigration Police smart car option package is very popular. 

 

A good opportunity for all the whistle blowers out there

[Deli]

Keep the country locked and you will see a nice increase in this percentage very soon,

together with all affiliated problems to come soon.

[Cake Monster]

There will soon be a lot of pain in the Employment market with news like this filtering through.

[Dumbastheycome]

I fail t understand the expressions of  "shock horror" when it was already an obvious starting back with the trade war side effect for one. Not at all specific to Thailand but a general effect worldwide.

Now with the multiply worse impact Covid-19 has had why so much announcements as if in denial of the obvious when a huge percentage of the consumer population has been mothballed ?

When it comes to domestic sales of vehicles in Thailand I find it incredible that even those on the minimum socioeconomic end of the earnings scale are willing and have been encouraged to buy on credit at a price equivalent to that in supposedly wealthier countries.

In Thailand domestic credit reached an all time high at the end of 2019 which sadly probably has put much of it at risk of  default if not already. Credit Default Swaps as a form of insurance are only good if that insurance remains valid even when it has dramatically increased in cost as  has happened in the last few months.

The ongoing reduction in the new sales market versus the proliferate second hand will be interesting to see an outcome to.

 

 

[RichardColeman]

I sense a new sales explosion as they all buy cars to travel to the hotels for their 40% off offers

[hotchilli]

19 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Does than mean no 3 month wait anymore when you buy a new car?

Buy two get 3rd one half price...

[Redvic]

On 6/18/2020 at 5:38 AM, DeeMoney said:

 

There has never been a 3 month wait, generally speaking. If you had to wait for months or heard of stories of people waiting for months, it is because they were buying a car that was just released and selling like hot cakes. For example, new D-Max, new Camry, new Honda City, etc. But if someone went to a Nissan dealer and told them they want a Navara right here right now, it is ready to be taken home within a few hours.

 

 

 

Used car market is indeed overpriced but it is because Thailand still has a high demand for vehicles. In terms of vehicles per 100,000 people, Thailand is still way behind countries where used cars are cheap. In those countries, most people already have a car, so when a used car is put onto the market, nobody wants it. It has to rely on people looking to replace their cars, which is the way the market has worked for decades.

 

In Thailand, a lot of used cars are still being bought by people who have never owned a vehicle.

No three month wait because it's an Nissan. Junk. 

[retsdon]

On 6/18/2020 at 1:10 PM, Dumbastheycome said:

When it comes to domestic sales of vehicles in Thailand I find it incredible that even those on the minimum socioeconomic end of the earnings scale are willing and have been encouraged to buy on credit at a price equivalent to that in supposedly wealthier countries.

I think it was the investor Richard Russell who said, 'There are two kinds of people in the world, those who understand how interest works and those who don't. Those who understand it earn it, and those who don't, pay it.' 

 

There's a reason why the Thai education system continues to be so bad. It keeps the money moving upwards.