Toyota Thailand industry auto sales seen down 10 pct in 2016

Thailand’s total domestic car sales are expected at 720,000 in 2016, down 10 percent from 2015, Toyota Motor Corp’s Thai unit said on Thursday.

Toyota, which commands about a third of the Thai market, sees a 9.8 percent fall from 2015 in its annual automotive sales in the Southeast Asian nation to 240,000 in 2016, it said at a news conference.

Kyoichi Tanada, president of the Toyota Thai unit, said the reason for the fall in both domestic car sales and Toyota’s own car sales were a weak global economy and a new Thai excise tax which would increase the retail prices of vehicles in 2016.