Toyota Motor Thailand is preparing to rehire staff laid off at the peak of the automotive downturn to accommodate a planned production volume increase.

"The laid-off subcontract workers will be gradually rehired until Toyota has increased its working shifts at its plants currently running on one shift," said a top executive who asked not to be named.

The country's largest automaker decided to add a shift in June after its vehicle inventories started running down, leaving it unable to meet local customer orders.

Customers currently face a wait of one to two months for delivery of the vehicles they have ordered. All passenger car models are in short supply, along with pickup truck models.

Automobile exports have also showed signs of recovery, rising 0.3% in March from the previous month, led by strong sales to the Middle East throughout the first quarter, according to the Federation of Thai Industries.

The FTI added that local automobile sales in March rose 20% from February.

But Toyota, which compiles the official figures for the industry, noted that sales in March were still down 37.8% from the same month last year.

At the peak of the industry slump, Toyota laid off 300 subcontract staff after it cut production to one shift and assembly lines were slowed to reduce inventories. Full-time staff were unaffected.

Toyota is also hopeful that the automotive market will rebound in the third and fourth quarters when financial rescue packages for automobile companies worldwide are expected to start having an impact.

General Motors Thailand and Mitsubishi Motors Thailand have also joined the casualty list of the recession. The two had earlier shut down their plants and laid off some staff to avoid inventory buildups.

Suparat Sirisuwanangkura, the president of the Thai Automotive Industry Association, said he remained gravely concerned about the political turmoil and violence in Thailand, which he does not see ending easily.

"This factor is negative for the industry if we all cannot overcome the problem," said Mr Suparat.

He said the automotive industry needed to go ahead with its own plans to turn business around, since the government was reluctant to provide tax breaks to encourage vehicle sales.

"Talks with the Finance Ministry and the Bank of Thailand will continue to find out other possible financial means," he said.

One option industry executives are discussing is a fund to support soft loans for small parts suppliers and another fund to help consumers buy vehicles more easily.