Collaboration with Chinese rivals is the only way companies in the automotive sector will survive in the long term, the head of Thailand’s biggest listed parts supplier has predicted, citing their lower costs and better technology.
Yeap Swee Chuan, founder and CEO of Aapico Hitech—a 30-year-old Bangkok-based automotive parts supplier and car dealership that racked up global revenue of THB 28.2 billion (USD 844.4 million) in 2025—said turmoil in the Southeast Asian country’s automotive sector in the last three years since Chinese manufacturers shook up a market that had been dominated by companies from Japan is being replicated across much of the world.
“The Japanese are at sixes and sevens,” he told Nikkei Asia in an exclusive interview. “In the long term, survival is going to require greater collaboration with the Chinese. It’s going to be hard to stop them.”
Yeap also stressed that the parlous state of Thailand’s automotive sector, which accounts for some 12% of gross domestic product but which Toyota’s Asia CEO Masahiko Maeda described this month as being “in a moment of crisis,” was also because of domestic factors. He highlighted a lack of political stability, limited government support for business and relatively slow economic growth.
