ASIA LED BY INDIA IN Q1 '24 AUTO INVESTMENTS UP

In Q12024, BMI tracked 38 new automotive manufacturing projects announced or inaugurated in Asia valued at over 44.4 bn.

- NIVEDITA MUKHERJEE

India led Asiain Q1(January-March) 2024 in autos-related investments, followed closely by South Korea and Thailand as India emerged as the favoured investment destination, recording nine investments, followed by Thailand and South Korea with six projects each, finds an auto industry outlook on investments in the Asia Pacific by BMI (a unit of Fitch Solutions).

In Q1 2024, BMI tracked 38 new automotive manufacturing projects announced or inaugurated in Asia valued at over USD 44.4 billion. Both the number of investments and the value of the investments tracked this quarter are down on a year-on-year basis while the number of projects in Q1 2024 dropped by 17.4 per cent y-o-y while the value of projects that disclosed financial details dropped by 36.6 per cent yo-y from Q1 2023. As per the report, there was continued pullback from the mainland China market this quarter, while shifting investments to South Korea and Japan (reshoring supply chains) and South East Asia in general.

Investment In India were seen ramping up with Red Sea crisis. This quarter, autosrelated investments in India were primarily focused on localising more component manufacturing, with significant investments in the market’s developing semiconductor industry. Furthermore, India’s electric vehicle (EV) value chain continued to develop, with investments in mining, processing, research and development (R&D) and battery manufacturing. The Government has approved investments of over USD 15.2 bn for the construction of three new semiconductor manufacturing plants, including its first semiconductor fabrication (fab) facility, as part of a major drive to strengthen the domestic chip sector under the ‘Modified Programme for Semiconductors and Display Fab Ecosystem’ scheme launched in 2021, BMI reports notes.