Thailand’s Manufacturing Production Index (MPI) fell by 3.5% year-on-year to 92.4 points in September, due mainly to sluggish car and construction industries, while the outcome of the US presidential election may pose a fresh challenge in Q4 2024, says the Office of Industrial Economics (OIE).
China Manufacturing Worries The Rest Of The Globe
China goods are actively invading the world market for the right reasons; more affordable with better quality. The West is certainly concerned, as they should be.
Toyota Raided For Fraudulent Safety Tests Data, Chairman Apologises
Japan’s transport ministry raided the headquarters of motor giant Toyota, as a scandal over faulty safety data escalated. The world’s largest carmaker apologised for providing incorrect or fraudulent data for safety certification tests.
Tesla Had A Turbulent H1 2024, What Can We Expect In H2 2024?
Tesla had a spectacularly turbulent first half of 2024. How would it navigate the second half? Is the company’s collection of mishaps a prelude to the end of what was deemed a science fiction concept?
Jeep Pulls Out Of China Over Government Meddling In Its Business
And with Taiwan threatened, Stellantis doesn’t want to be stuck like automakers in Russia.
Vietnam’s First Domestic Car To Be Available In August 2019
VinFast, a unit of Vietnam’s largest conglomerate Vingroup JSC VIC.HM, is set to become the country’s first fully-fledged domestic car manufacturer as the company is projecting to have its first car available commercially in August of 2019.
Currently, the company already has established a new plant in the northern Vietnamese port town of Haiphong, where two models will be built. And for a start, VinFast is looking to manufacture 250,000 cars annually in the next five years of production. This is equivalent to 92 percent of all the cars sold in Vietnam in 2017 according to data collated by the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (VAMA). To add to this, the company has earmarked about USD 3.5 billion for the project and has even debuted two vehicles at the Paris Motor Show in 2018. Commenting on the company’s ambitions, Jim Deluca, CEO of VinFast has said that, “[VinFast is] looking to expand both within ASEAN and outside.”
Beyond these vehicles, VinFast also intends to move forward with a city car through a partnership with General Motors that will also extend to automotive sales, where General Motors has given VinFast exclusive distribution rights for Chevrolet-branded vehicles in Vietnam. Other technology agreements are also underway between VinFast and General Motors and this will add on to VinFast’s expanding portfolio of partnerships such as the company’s current partnership with Siemens for the development of domestic electric buses.
As of now, a majority of the cars sold in Vietnam are foreign brands assembled in the country from kits. However, a series of free trade agreements have reduced import duties and this has opened up the market for domestic manufacturers. For example, a 30 percent import tax on cars from other Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries was removed in 2018.
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