AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)06/08 Report--

On June 7th Japanese carmaker Suzuki officially announced that it would close its Thai car plant.

Suzuki will close its SMT plant and stop producing cars and trucks in Thailand by the end of 2025, and will focus on producing electric and hybrid cars in other regions, according to a press release issued by Suzuki. At the same time, Suzuki stressed that it will retain sales and after-sales service after the closure of the Thai plant, and plans to continue sales and after-sales service in Thailand by importing cars from other factories in ASEAN, Japan and India.

After Suzuki obtained project approval after the Thai government announced the environmentally friendly car project in 2007, Suzuki applied and established the Suzuki Thai factory in August 2011, which became a wholly owned subsidiary of Suzuki and began producing cars in March 2012, according to official data. At present, the factory employs 800 people and produces 60000 vehicles a year. The main models produced include Swift (the domestic version was once named Swift), Ciazu and Celerio. According to the data, the factory produced 7579 cars in fiscal 2023. It is worth mentioning that production at its peak was 60, 000, compared with a decline in production in fiscal 2023. In terms of sales, 10807 new cars were sold in Thailand in fiscal 2023.

It is worth mentioning that Thailand is the largest automobile manufacturer and exporter of the 10 ASEAN countries (that is, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations), as well as the fifth largest automobile market in the world. Toyota, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Honda and Mazda, both Japanese brands, have set up factories in Thailand. In addition, Chinese car companies, including SAIC, Great Wall, BYD, Nezha, Changan, Guangzhou Automobile and other companies have also set up factories in Thailand or are planning. Officials say Suzuki's decision to close its Thai plant by the end of 2025 is based on Suzuki's global production structure. In the process of promoting carbon neutralization and electrification globally, Suzuki has been considering optimizing the global production base within the group.

SUZUKI, founded in 1920, is a Japanese automobile manufacturing company headquartered in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. It began to produce cars in 1955. At that time, it mainly produced minicars. So far, Suzuki has a history of more than a hundred years, but it is a pity that its days in the Chinese market are very short.

In 1984, Suzuki first provided technology to the Chinese market and was one of the first Japanese car companies to enter the Chinese market. In 1993, Suzuki entered the Chinese market, and Changan Suzuki Automobile Co., Ltd. was jointly established by Suzuki Co., Ltd. and Changan Automobile Co., Ltd. in 1995, a joint venture with Changhe Automobile established Jiangxi Changhe Suzuki Automobile Co., Ltd. to produce and sell Suzuki products with the help of Changan Automobile and Changhe Automobile. On November 5, 2012, Suzuki announced that it would withdraw from the US auto sales market and focus on motorcycle sales. At that time, the Chinese market became a relatively high sales market for Suzuki. According to the data, Changan Suzuki sold 220000 vehicles in 2011, but sales have been declining ever since. In 2018, Changan Suzuki sold only 35000 vehicles. Due to poor sales and continued losses, Suzuki eventually withdrew from the Chinese market in 2018.

The industry believes that Suzuki's decision to close the Thai car plant may be related to the poor performance of the Thai auto market. From January to April 2024, Thai sales fell 23.9% year-on-year to 210494 vehicles, according to the data.

Welcome to subscribe to the WeChat public account "Automotive Industry Focus" to get the first-hand insider information on the automotive industry and talk about things in the automotive circle. Welcome to break the news! WeChat ID autoWechat