Kuehne + Nagel Thailand has been awarded a new contract from Thai Chery Yarnyon, the authorised importer and distributor of Chery vehicles in Thailand.
Kuehne + Nagel will provide management services for the importation of 2,000 Chery cars from Wuhu in China in containers. The vehicles will be transhipped in Shanghai before being discharged at the Laem Chabang port in Thailand.
Kuehne + Nagel will then be responsible for reloading and transporting the containers by barge along the Chaopraya River, up to the Sahathai Freezone port near Bangkok.
The contract covers demand for the low-cost vehicles as discussions continue between Chery and its Thai distributor for an assembly contract in Thailand.
Discussions are ongoing for the production of around 5,000 units of Chery QQ compact cars and Tiggo sport utility vehicles from semi-knocked-down for domestic and Asean markets.
As a low-cost vehicle maker Chery has been attracted by the nine-month downturn in the Thai market which saw total vehicle sales for January and February fall by 30% (to 32,085 units) and 30.7% year-on-year, respectively.
The Thai government has recently rejected a request from the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI) to cut excise tax on new vehicle purchases.
