The Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) wants the government to launch new measures to lift the domestic car market within two months as auto sales, particularly pickups, continued to fall in January.
In the pickup segment, the significant sales drop over the past two years caused manufacturers to reduce production by more than 200,000 units, which dealt a blow to workers at car factories as well as auto parts makers, said Surapong Paisitpatanapong, vice-chairman of the FTI and spokesman for the federation's Automotive Industry Club.
The slowdown in the domestic car market has mainly resulted from weak consumer purchasing power and the difficulties they encounter in accessing auto loans amid the country's high level of household debt.
"Authorities earlier said they would implement new measures within four months, but we think that may be too late," said Mr Surapong.
Many companies in the automotive sector have reduced production workers' hours to 3-4 days a week and cut wages, which have been reduced to 75% of full pay, he said.
Measures to solve the stagnant market should include attempts to solve the debt problem and slow economic growth, along with a proposal to establish a 5-billion-baht fund to increase consumer auto loans in the pickup segment.
The fund was proposed to Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra late last year by the Joint Standing Committee on Commerce, Industry and Banking in an effort to deal with dismal domestic car sales.
Help is badly needed as the automotive industry accounts for 30% of the country's GDP, and employees in this industry account for 16% of the country's total workforce.
In January, total car sales fell by more than 12% year-on-year to 48,092 units while car exports plunged by 28.3% to 62,321 units, the lowest level in 33 months.
The poor sales in the export sector were mainly attributed to growing concerns over US President Donald Trump's plan to impose new tariffs on car imports into the US as well as cheaper car exports from China.
Last month, Thailand's total car production fell by 24.6% year-on-year to 107,103 vehicles, according to the club.
