Thai's car exports in April plunges over 40% year-on-year

• Source: Xinhua
• [07:40 May 22 2009]
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Thailand's car exports were continuously hit by the global financial crisis as April's car exports plunged 45.91 percent compared with the same period of last year, Thailand's Automotive Industry Club (AIC) under the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) announced Thursday.

Also, for a January-April period, 2009, the country's car exports declined 33.16 percent year-on-year, said AIC spokesman Surapong Paisitpattanapong.

Thailand exported 28,663 cars, worth of 13.26 billion baht ($385. 62 million) in April, and for the first four months, the country exported 167,468 cars, valued at 76.65 billion baht ($2. 22 billion), the AIC spokesman said.

For the domestic car sale in April, some 39,713 cars were sold, a 27.4 percent lower compared with the same period of 2009, said Surapong.

On the production side, some 53,647 cars were manufactured in April, a 44.95 percent lower compared with the same period of last year, he said.

And, some 252,619 cars were assembled in the first four months of 2009, down by 45.45 percent year-on-year, said the spokesman.

The country's car sales were largely hit by the global financial crisis, falling agricultural prices, the domestic instability, slow government budget disbursement, weak consumer confidence and the falling number of foreign tourists, he said.