Thai port ships 40,000 new vehicles to NZ every year
Aimee Shaw
Thailand is New Zealand’s secondlargest source of new vehicles — mainly trucks — and demand is set to increase.
Almost 46,000 new vehicles were exported to New Zealand from Thailand last year, while just over 47,000 came from Japan.
A shipping terminal 130km east of the Thai capital, Bangkok, sends 40,000 new vehicles to New Zealand every year.
Namyong Terminal, at Laem Chabang Port, ships mainly pickup trucks, including Toyota, Mitsubishi and Mazda vehicles, mainly to the Ports of Auckland and CentrePort Wellington.
Last year about 160,000 new vehicles came into the country, according to the Motor Industry Association, of which 41,168 were from Laem Chabang.
Namyong, a roll-on, roll-off terminal that services cargo liners and vehicle manufacturers, has three wharfs each 697m long and a 17m dredged seaway for large vessels.
The majority of vehicles imported from Thailand are Ford Rangers — New Zealand’s most popular car three years in a row — and Toyota Hiluxes. hamish.fletcher@nzherald.co.nz liam.dann@nzherald.co.nz jamie.gray@nzherald.co.nz tamsyn.parker@nzherald.co.nz
Motor Industry Association chief David Crawford said most light commercial vehicles and SUVs shipped from Thailand were manufactured there.
“Out of Thailand it’s almost all fully light vehicles, those less than 3.5 tonnes — the pickup trucks, SUVs and the odd car,” he said.
“The demand for pickup trucks has picked up significantly,” he said, “and Given New Zealand’s new vehicle purchasing trends [SUVs and light commercial vehicles], Japan and Thailand will remain the country of origin for new vehicles for some time.” grant.bradley@nzherald.co.nz anne.gibson@nzherald.co.nz venuto@nzherald.co.nz Phone: 373-6400 business@nzherald.co.nz hembry@nzherald.co.nz shaw@nzherald.co.nz holly.ryan@nzherald.co.nz
New Zealand’s new vehicle market was dominated by imports from Japan and Thailand, he said, followed by those from Korea and China.
“Demand for SUVs overtook passenger vehicles about 18 months ago in terms of volumes per year sold, and at the moment light commercial vehicles are . . . overtaking passenger vehicles so we’re seeing less and less passenger vehicles sold and more and more SUVs and light commercial vehicles.”
Aimee Shaw
travelled to Thailand courtesy of the Government of Thailand.