HoChi Minh City (VNS/VNA)𒊎 — Automobile producer THACO recently shippedmore than 200 Kia vehicles and auto parts to Thailand, Myanmar, Japan, and theRepublic of Korea (RoK).

The conglomerate’slargest export consignment to date, made on February 17, comprised of cars,buses and semi-trailers manufactured at its factories at the THACO-Chu LaiIndustrial Park in central Quang Nam province. The exports included 80Grand Carnival cars to Thailand, the company’s seventh consignment to itspartner, Yontrakit, since December 2019. One hundred and twentyKia Soluto cars were shipped to Myanmar, the sixth batch to this market. Kia cars manufactured byTHACO are increasingly appreciated by customers in ASEAN countries since theirquality is equivalent to those made in the RoK and meets global Kia standards,while their prices are very competitive. In 2021, THACO plans toexport 1,480 automobiles to Thailand and Myanmar, expand exports to othermarkets, and gradually achieve its goal of becoming a production and exportbase for Kia Motors cars and spare parts in the ASEAN region. This is THACO’s firstexport of semi-trailers to Japan, one of the most challenging markets in theworld with stringent quality requirements. It exported through itsNippon Trex, a leading manufacturer and exporter of semi-trailers in Japan. Nippon Trex carried outextensive research on and technical discussions about semi-trailer productdevelopment in the Japan before appreciating THACO’s capacity and collaboratingwith it to manufacture and export semi-trailers to the market. This time THACO alsoexported buses to Thailand via VOLVO Group’s VOLVO Buses Corporation, one ofthe world’s biggest manufacturers of large buses. THACO buses wereselected by VOLVO Buses for shipping and distributing in Thailand since theymet all requirements in terms of technology, quality, safety, and competitiveprices and Thailand’s standards and certification requirements (with respect todesign, size, ECE certificates, and others). The company uses over 60 per centlocally made parts. The shipment kicked offTHACO’s plans to export 66 buses to Thailand and South Korea this year. In addition to cars andsemi-trailers, auto parts too were exported to the RoK, including seat covers,gearshift covers, air-conditioning radiators, and specialised vehiclecomponents for Hyundai Santafe. The consignment was worth 200,000 USD. With the import tax onCBU cars within the ASEAN bloc scrapped since the beginning of 2018, many carassemblers in Vietnam have switched to importing and distributing cars, whereasTHACO has been expanding production and increasing the use of local parts toserve its strategy of exporting to Southeast Asia. This year THACO willcontinue to export to existing markets Thailand, Myanmar, the Philippines, theUS, and Japan and expand to other ASEAN countries, with a total of 2,500vehicles. It expects to earn 30million USD from exports of auto parts and other mechanical products. Exports of large numbersof cars since last year have attested to the fact that cars made in Vietnam cancompete in foreign markets, which is gradually helping raise the country’sprofile in the global market. THACO plans to increaseexports to ASEAN and enter new markets in Africa, West Asia, South Asia,Australia, and elsewhere./.