The South East Asia Iron and Steel Institute (SEAISI) has issued updated data for the automotive sectors in Thailand and Indonesia, the two production hubs for the automotive sector in ASEAN.
According to the SEAISI, Thailand’s car production in 2020 decreased by 29 percent year on year to 1.43 million units. The country’s car production reached a high level of 2.17 million units in 2018 and totaled 2.01 million units in 2019. Domestic sales in the country continued to expand gradually from around 800,000 units in 2015 to a million units in 2018 and 2019, before the volume went down to 792,146 units in 2020 during the pandemic. Thailand’s passenger car market is strong, accounting for 46 percent of all vehicles distributed domestically and 54 percent of total cars exported. Thailand’s car exports reached a peak at 1.2 million units in 2015 and the volume gradually declined to 792,000 units in 2020. The Federation of Thai Industries said it expected that car production in the country would increase slightly in 2021, by only five percent year on year to 1.5 million units.
Indonesia’s car production expanded to a peak level of 1.34 million units in 2018 and the volume declined slightly to 1.29 million units in 2019 due to the economic slowdown. The impact of the pandemic in 2020 resulted in a sharp drop in car production to 690,000 units. The country’s car production in the first quarter this year totaled 255,312 units, down by 22 percent year on year. The Association of Indonesia Automotive Industries predicted that car production would reach 970,000 units in 2021. According to the SEAISI, Indonesia is the biggest car market in the ASEAN region in terms of market size. However, the impact of the pandemic caused the sales volume to decrease to 530,000 units in 2020, while the sales volume declined by 21 percent year on year to 187,021 units in the first quarter of 2021. However, it is expected that the sales volume will recover to 750,000 units in 2021, still below the pre-pandemic level.