Asian Honda upbeat about Thai prospects

Asian Honda Motor Co, a wholly owned subsidiary of Japan’s Honda Motor, remains upbeat about Thailand’s motorcycle market, insisting it has yet to become saturated. 

“Despite an average 5% decrease in sales during the past three years, there are still many positive factors to boost the market including popularity and multipurpose usage,” said president and chief executive Noriaki Abe.

“Thailand’s weather contributes to the popularity and usage of motorcycles, unlike Japan and Europe, where motorcycles are not so popular due to long winter seasons.”

From April-October, the number of completely built-up (CBU) motorcycles sold here dropped to 768,000 units from 926,000 in the same period last year.

The number of CBU motorcycles exported fell to 67,700 units from 91,000, bringing the total number of CBU motorcycles produced in Thailand to 835,700 units from 1.02 million units in the same period last year.

For fiscal 2014 ending next March 31, Honda expects CBU motorcycle production will amount to 1.5 million units, down from 1.68 million in the same period last year.

But it expects the number to rise to 1.531 million units in fiscal 2016 starting next April 1.

In the previous fiscal year, the company sold 1.52 million units domestically with exports of 157,000 units.

In a related development, the company yesterday revised down the number of Honda passenger cars sold this year in Thailand to 110,000 vehicles against the 125,000 it projected in September.

In the first 10 months of this year, Honda sold 83,508 passenger cars, down from 188,468 in the same period last year.

Currently, Thailand ranks as Honda’s fourth-largest production base, after Indonesia, India and Vietnam.

The company yesterday celebrated production of 50 million motorcycles and power products in Thailand after its establishment in 1965.

Of the total, motorcycles and power products accounted for equal amounts, which were exported to 80 countries and territories worldwide.

“Power products are currently only sold in Thailand, but in the near future we plan to export them and increase production capacity,” Mr Abe said.

Asian Honda upbeat about Thai prospects