Thai vehicles export reached 218, 051 units during the first five months of 2006, up 41.5 percent over the same period last year, according to the Federation of Thai Industries.

In the January to May period, exports of automobiles and automotive parts and components earned the country 137.8 billion baht (3,626 million U.S. dollars), up 32.6 percent year-on-year.

In the first five months of this year, a total of 497,668 vehicles were assembled in the kingdom.

As an automobile manufacturing hub in Southeast Asia, Thailand assembled 1,125,171 vehicles in 2005, ranking 14th place in the world in terms of production.

Source: Xinhua