ASEAN car producers making strong recovery: report

ASEAN car producers making strong recovery: report

Agence France-Presse Bangkok

Southeast Asia's major car producers have emerged from the regional financial crisis stronger and with a promising future, according to a new report by market researcher Automotive Resources Asia.

"Crushing setbacks during the financial crisis have produced a stronger, more resilient ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) automotive industry," ARA's director of market research John Bonnell said.

"ASEAN's recovery is a good example of the Phoenix affect," he said, referring to the mythical bird which rose from the ashes.

The report forecast production by Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines to grow to two million vehicles by 2006. Volume rose from 465,000 in 1998 -- in the midst of the regional crisis -- to 1.28 million last year.

Thailand was leading the region's recovery, with production of 459,000 vehicles in 2001, representing 36 percent of the region's total, the report said.

It found that exports were driving the industry, with ASEAN shipping more than 250,000 cars and trucks to global markets last year. Export volume is expected to climb close to 600,000 vehicles by 2006, with Thailand contributing some 500,000.

As Japanese producers Toyota and Isuzu move their pick-up truck production base to Thailand over the next few years, Thailand was expected to lead other ASEAN producers by assembling 940,000 vehicles -- or 48 percent of regional production -- in 2006, the report said.

Thailand has become a Southeast Asian manufacturing base for several global automakers over the past few decades, due to its central geographical position, good infrastructure, generous tax and legal incentives, and a supply of equipment and spare parts.

Japanese automakers Toyota and Nissan pioneered the industry in the 1960s and 1970s, and were joined in the 1990s by U.S. firms General Motors and Ford and Europe's BMW.

The ARA report also found that regional demand was gradually recovering.

"By our conservative estimates, demand for cars and trucks will climb between five and 10 percent a year through 2006," Bonnell said.

Demand grew from 481,000 vehicles in 1998 to just over a million in 2001, and was expected to expand to 1.4 million by 2006.