With the confirmation of the biggies like Scania (Sweden) and Hino (Japan), we now know that Thailand is also becoming a major production hub for medium and heavy commercial vehicles. In fact, every year almost 15,000 and 20,000 heavy trucks are registered.
Scania’s new factory in Bangkok’s Free Trade Zone is definitely a cornerstone of the regional expansion plans. Apart from truck and bus assembly, the factory also has a manufacturing facility for truck cabs alongside a regional headquarters for the company’s operations in Asia.
This new business in Thailand is cross-functional with employees from the company’s Production and Logistics, R&D, Purchasing and Sales, and Marketing organizations.
Also, Hino, the Japanese truckmaker is investing more than US$100m to develop a regional medium and heavy truck production hub serving markets over Asia-Pacific. Construction is set to start this July, with operations scheduled to big in 2021.
It is indeed great news for Thailand and the potential investors that these eminent truck makers have chosen the country despite it having a much smaller truck market in comparison with Indonesia. In the previous year, approximately 32,000 medium and heavy commercial vehicles over 4.5 tons GVW trucks were sold in the country as compared to the estimated 125,000 units in Indonesia.
Also, Isuzu Motors announced doubled production capacity of built-up trucks (medium and heavy) at its Chachoengsao plant in Thailand to 26,000 units, as they look forward to exporting these trucks to South-east Asian markets, including Vietnam, Philippines, and Indonesia.
