Thailand becomes top pickup maker

BANGKOK: -- Thailand has become the world's top producer of one-ton pickup trucks, surpassing the United States, a senior industry ministry official said on Tuesday.

"Thailand is now the champ in one-ton pickup production," said Sumornman Garayasiri, deputy permanent secretary at the Ministry of Industry.

Thailand, which has won the nickname of the being the "Detroit of Asia" because of the large scale of automotive manufacturing it has attracted over the past decade, surpassed the 1 million-unit mark last year for vehicles manufactured locally.

The industry has set a target for reaching 2 million units by the year 2010, Sumornman said.

During the first two months of this year, a total of 188,120 cars and trucks were manufactured locally, of which 47.5 per cent were exported.

Of the total production both for the domestic and export markets, 139,116 units, or 74 per cent, were one-ton pickups, according to the latest figures released by Thailand's Auto Industry Club.

Thailand ranks among the world's top-15 automobile producers.

In 2005, Thailand's automobile production reached 1,125,316 units, of which 440,717 were exported, with a value of 203 billion baht ($5.2 billion).

-- DPA / Bangkok Post 2006-03-28

The "Hub of Pick-ups" sounds wrong on so many different levels ......

Actually this statistic doesn't surprise me after living here for a few years as much as it would have 5 years ago. (bue all of my pick-ups were made in the USA before getting here)

I suppose congratulations are in order for Thailand.

No easy feat to achieve this level of production and I'm sure will come as a surprise to many people. I was two years ago when I first read reports that Thailand was the #2 pickup producer in the world at that time.

Also interesting, and perhaps further surprising to others, is that Thailand is #2 in the world (behind the USA) in the number of pickups purchased.

oddly, i rarely see "one-ton" pickups here in thailand which are usually have the 8 lug nuts per wheel and/or four wheels per axel. it seems that here, they are mostly the 1/2 ton variety (maybe over-loaded with one-ton of stuff in the back).

I wonder if they export their Tiger brand

oddly, i rarely see "one-ton" pickups here in thailand which are usually have the 8 lug nuts per wheel and/or four wheels per axel. it seems that here, they are mostly the 1/2 ton variety (maybe over-loaded with one-ton of stuff in the back).

I think you'll find that most of the larger four wheeled pick-ups here are rated at a metric tonne. I know my Toyota is. I've never seen a six wheeled pick-up in Thailand, and I'm not talking commercial trucks here. They do have them in the US though.

edit p.s. Well done

Edited March 28, 200620 yr by Maejo Man