Automotive Industry  

ASEAN region: A company location for leading car manufacturers.

Within the countries of the ASEAN region, Thailand has become the central production site for the automotive industry in recent years. All major Japanese car manufacturers, as well as BMW, Mercedes Benz, Audi, General Motors, Ford, Volvo, and Peugeot are producing cars in Thailand.

Growing domestic automobile supplier industry

Thailand is the largest importer in the ASEAN region of machine tools for the automotive industry and its suppliers. About 2000 small- and medium-sized suppliers to the automotive industry exist in Thailand. Around 40% are system suppliers (tier-1 suppliers), half of which are purely Thai companies. About 60% of the suppliers are part or component suppliers (tier-2 and below).

Versatile cooperation opportunities

One focus of the Thai government’s industrial development plan is to increase the percentage of Thai automobile suppliers to automotive production and to identify existing weaknesses in the Thai suppliers. The Thai government has taken steps to address these weaknesses by establishing support programs for cooperation between Thai and Western small- and medium-sized automobile suppliers. Areas include:

       o Design and development of systems

       o Design and development of components

       o Improvement of existing management structures