Thailand-Japan trade deal to boost Honda motorcycle sales in Thailand

By Deutsche Presse Agentur

 

The Honda Motor company is forecasting a 20 per cent hike in sales of Japanese heavy motorcycles in 2017 in Thailand as the country is expected to enter a trade deal with Japan, its subsidiary A.P. Honda said Tuesday.

 

Import duty on motorcycles with engine displacement above 400cc will be waived by April 2017 as part of the Japan-Thailand Economic Partnership Agreement, cutting prices of imported bikes by 5 percent, A.P Honda manager Bunluesak Chonprasertsuk told dpa.

Bunluesak said 18 per cent growth was projected for 2016, with 24,000 heavy motorcycles being sold, 10,000 of which are expected to be sold by Honda.

In 2017, with the tariff exemption waived, 27,000 heavy motorcycles are expected to be sold in Thailand, 11,500 of which would be from Honda.

"Two factors (besides the tariff exemption) contributed to the continuous growth - our effective marketing campaign and Thai's growing interest in big bikes," Bunluesak added.

Honda is the market leader for heavy motorcycles in Thailand with a38 per cent share of total sales.

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2016-12-06

I doubt 10,000 of the heavy motorcycles are imports. Seems the majority are domestically produced. 

Good news for all Japanese manufacturers, not just Honda.

 

Hopefully Honda will pass this saving onto the consumer, in the past the import duty from Japan to Thailand was reduced year on year but the price of some imported models remained very high. Hopefully we'll see Thai prices on Japanese made bikes on a par with the USA seeing as the import duty will have been removed and shipping costs are lower to Thailand (and the Baht strong).

 

If they only reduce Thai prices by 5%, the costs will still be well above the USA prices. A 5% reduction on an Africa Twin for example would make the DCT version 550,000 Baht compared to the USA price of under 500,000 Baht. They could reduce by 10% and still charge more than they do in the US.

 

 

 

 

Although 5 percent reduction in import tarrif is rather pathetic.... it's better than nothing I suppose.

 

Will be interesting to see what 'Big bikes' Honda decide to export into Thailand. Saw the new Africa Twin a few weeks ago but it wasn't on the shop floor long...May have been a pre-ordered bike. Very nice looking beast.

 

Last week in the same shop they were busy putting the final touches on a Honda 250 rally. Just wish they would boost that engine to a 450. I'm sure it would sell like hot cakes to the expat community.

CMKiwi: well the import tarrif was already reduced year over year and is now 5%, can't reduce much more than 5% without paying people to import stuff :)

 

But like JonnyF said the Honda import bikes are still way overpriced compared to other countries and so far they haven't really handed over the import tax reductions to the customers so I don't see how the coming 5% drop will contribute to a 15% increase in overall sales. Actually.. maybe they just use the increased profit margin to funnel that money into marketing? The vast majority of bikes sold are made here anyways so import tarrif up or down doesn't influence the overall sales numbers that much.

 

Also what is it with the math in the article? They say total big bike sales in Thailand in 2016 were 24k and expect that to grow to 27k or a 12.5% increase. For Honda themselves they project an increase from 10k to 11.5k which is a 15% increase. Where does the 20% come from?

With more big bikes on the road in Thailand, in a year's time I expect there will be fewer customers left to buy them, as the fatal accident record mounts.