More room to develop for Thai automotive sector

The automotive industry is on a roll, particularly in Thailand, which recorded a 47-month high domestic automobile sales last November. With the economic recovery and increasing purchasing power of consumers, the automobile market have been registering high growth and this in turn give rise to the need for adequate level of aftermarket service care.

According to the latest findings of market research company GfK, there are a total of 3,200 shops in the country selling passenger car tires in the aftermarket. While tire specialist shops are uniformly spread out across the country, fast fit outlets make up a third of all shops and are more commonly found in Bangkok and vicinity area where demand tends to be higher compared to the other regions. Within the central region alone, more than one in two tire specialist shops are fast fitters.

The 160 exhibitors from 40 countries in this year’s Tyrexpo Asia exhibition make it the largest in its 15 year history, attesting to the vibrancy of the automotive sector, according to the event organiser ECI International.

Some other key automotive trends were uncovered by GfK Thailand’s automotive retail audit, such as the dominance of six main starter battery brands, which contribute nearly 95 percent of the total market sales. In addition, GfK findings reveal that conventional lead-acid batteries still take up the lion’s share of 80 percent sales in the replacement market as compared to maintenance-free batteries which form the remaining 20 percent.

“The Thai automotive sector is already thriving, but looking at the current market situation, there is definitely still more room for development; to allow for more players to enter the field. Having said this, automotive is big business in Thailand, and there is no doubt that the industry will remain very competitive and continue its upward growth trend for many years to come,” said Wichit Purepong, general manager of GfK Thailand.