Thai Yamaha Motor, the country's second-largest motorcycle manufacturer, expects its sales to grow by 12 per cent this year to 476,000 units, which would maintain its market share at 28 per cent.

"We see a very positive market. The economy seems to be picking up, something we already saw in the final quarter of last year. The only uncertain scenario is the political situation, which could upset all predictions. We expect the overall market to close at 1.7 million units," chief operating officer Praphan Phornthanavarsit said yesterday.

Yamaha expects the total market to grow by 11 per cent from last year's level. It anticipates further growth in the automatic segment, due to an increase in the number of models available. Yamaha, which recently launched its latest model - the new Mio - hopes to further expand its market share in the automatic segment from last year's 53 per cent. In 2008, Yamaha had 52 per cent of the market.

Company officials hinted that this year the company might consider introducing fuel-injection technology in more models. Competitor Honda has already incorporated the technology into all of its models.

"This year, our marketing strategy will be to focus on sports marketing. We found through our surveys that our customers, besides watching TV and being into music, also play a lot of sport. As a result we have decided to support the Muang Thong football team. We also have invested in changing the stadium to our branding. The Muang Thong FC stadium from now on will be known as the Yamaha Stadium," said Praphan.

The company also hopes to expand its number of sales outlets by 50, bringing the total to 387.