Economic bright spots are getting harder to find in Thailand
Falling car production is a sign of a deeper malaise
It is not for nothing that Thailand is called the Detroit of South-East Asia. In its heyday the country built a car-export powerhouse by combining Japanese auto-making know-how with a competitive network of Thai car-parts suppliers. It is still South-East Asia’s biggest carmaker. Yet the production lines are not thrumming as they once did. On November 25th the Federation of Thai Industries, a trade group, said the country’s annual car output would probably sag to 1.5m units in 2024, 18% lower than in 2023 and 39% down from peak production a decade ago. Suzuki and Subaru, two Japanese carmakers, are closing down factories in Thailand.
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This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “Wheels of fortune”
From the January 4th 2025 edition
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