The Thai Industries Sentiment Index rose to a forty four month high from 104.7 points in November 2009 to 113.6 points in December, Federation of Thai Industries chairman Santi Vilassakdanont said on Wednesday.

The index had now been above one hundred for 3 consecutive months and was at its highest since March 2006, Mr Santi said.

"The increase was attributed to increased orders, sales and production, while the domestic and global economies continued expanding," he said. "People were also spending more during the New Year's holiday."

However, the industrial sector was concerned about the higher minimum wage and rising prices of raw materials and fuels.

"The industry is also worried about the political uncertainty, the foreign exchange rate, the fragile global economic situation, the decreasing interest rate since November, and rising fuel prices in particular," he said.

"The industrial sector would like the government to urgently resolve the issue of the suspension of industrial projects in Map Ta Phut, encourage banks to provide more loans to small and medium businesses, stabilise the political situation, promote Thai labour in the country, come up with measures to improve the quality of workers in the long run and prevent fuel prices from rising too high," the FTI chief said.

Car exports last month rose to 53,600 units or 23.86% year-on-year, FTI's Automotive Industry Club spokesman Surapong Paisitpattanapong said.

However, auto exports in December dropped 58,665 units or 8.63 per cent from November. Last month's export value was 25.21 billion baht, up 41.81 per cent.

Throughout 2009, car exports stood at 535,563 units, down 31.01 per cent year-on-year. The export value was 251.34 billion baht, down 21.94 per cent from 2008.

Mr Surapong said 111,722 cars were produced last month, 32.06 per cent higher year-on-year but 7.66 per cent lower from Nov 2009. A total of 999,378 cars were manufactured last year, 28.31 per cent lower from 2008.

Domestic auto sales last month stood at 72, 085 units, hitting a three year high. The figure was 22.2 per cent higher from the same period of 2008. A total of 548,871 cars were sold last year, down 10.8 per cent from 2008.

"The increase of auto sales in the past four months was due to the rising confidence of consumers and the auto industry, in addition to the government's stimulus measures, higher prices of agricultural products and improved tourism since the third quarter last year," he said.

The Automotive Industry Club forecast that 385,693 cars would be produced in the first quarter of this year, or 10.91 per cent higher from the previous quarter. Auto production between Oct and Dec 2009 was at 347,750 units.

Source - The Bangkok Post