KHON KAEN : A delay to the government's megaprojects is expected to dampen domestic sales of trucks and buses next year, says Scania AB, the Swedish truck and bus maker.
Market growth next year will depend on public spending, says Mr Phuriwat. SOMCHAI POOMLARD
"Next year's demand will be determined mainly by state spending," said Phuriwat Rak-Intr, the managing director of Scania Siam Co, a wholly owned subsidiary of Scania.
"The market may see a rise if the government could steer through the two borrowing bills for the 2-trillion-baht infrastructure and 350-billion-baht water management projects."
Scania projects its global sales of new trucks to rise by 50% this year to 30,000 units, with bus sales rising slightly to about 1,500.
Mr Phuriwat said bus sales may still grow slightly next year because of the continuing increase in foreign tourists.
The Tourism Council of Thailand said last week that simmering political strife has yet to affect tourism adversely, and 26.2 million foreign tourist arrivals are still expected this year.
The Tourism Authority of Thailand expects foreign tourist arrivals to grow to 28 million next year.
Scania Siam plans to sell 300 trucks this year, an 85.2% increase from 162 last year. Over the first 10 months, it sold 215 trucks.
For the bus segment, it plans to sell 200 this year, up by 23.5% on last year's sales of 162. It sold 152 buses in the first 10 months.
Scania plans to increase its global market share to 1.5% this year from less than 1% last year.
Some 90% of the truck market belongs to Japanese manufacturers.
Scania has an assembly plant in Chachoengsao province with annual capacity of 500 vehicles.
The company said in July that it plans to increase annual production at the plant from 500 vehicles now to 1,100 in 2018 as part of a five-year business plan.
Scania plans to sell 1,732 units in Asean this year, up by 47.9% from last year.
Scania began with trucks in Thailand in 1986 and added buses in 1987 via an importer called Forefront (Thailand).
Scania Siam Co was founded in 2000 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Scania AB.
The Chachoengsao factory uses separate lines for trucks and buses to support a large range of trucks, bus chassis, spare parts and services.
Scania in May said it planned to open 10 more service centres nationwide over the next three years to capitalise on a busy logistics system triggered by regional integration.
Scania now operates six service centres in Samut Prakan, Songkhla, Chon Buri, Saraburi, Surat Thani and Tak provinces.
Construction of new centres at Khon Kaen and Chiang Mai is now 70% complete, while new locations in Samut Sakhon, Nakhon Sawan and Rayong are planned.
Scania Siam plans to have 16 showrooms and service centres by 2015.
Elsewhere in Asean, the Swedish firm operates a factory in Malaysia with annual production capacity of 700 vehicles.