Theera Poomsanoh, director of CI Group, said yesterday that the company expected to soon conclude a study of new coil products looking into the feasibility of building new plants, the cost of expansion and the market potential for the coils.

CI Group currently operates two plants: one in Pathum Thani which has operated for 22 years, and a second in Pinthong Industrial Park in Chon Buri. The first plant has an annual coil production capacity of 700 million square inches, the second plant 800 million square inches.

Theera said the idea to set up new production lines that can use its current coils as raw material came during visits by company executives to other countries last year.

Some of its customers use coils to manufacture industrial products other than air-conditioners like its main customers.

The executives decided that adding new production lines to its plants would help the company expand its market base and sales significantly.

Expanding its international presence is also part of the company's business plan.

Veteran Indian executive BN Agarwal, the company's newly appointed managing director, sees strong growth potential for small coils internationally.

Threera said three factors were likely to contribute to strong growth abroad.

First, the US is changing from using large air conditioners to smaller units because the government there wants people to reduce energy consumption.

This could lead to higher demand for small coils.

Second, the weather in many countries is warming. Third, there is an increase in the number of giant construction projects.

New York City, for example, is rebuilding the destroyed World Trade Centre.

The company's new plant in Chon Buri has received approval from the Board of Investment (BoI) for export tax benefits. Agarwal expects to increase the proportion of export sales to 38 per cent this year from 27 per cent last year.

By appointing Agarwal, the company expects to use his management experience in jewellery and industrial parts to raise sales growth from Bt800 million last year to Bt1.3 billion this year as well as to generate 30 per cent annual growth during the next three years.

Moreover, the company also sees Agarwal as a good connection to India, which will be its second-largest market in the future.

Nitida Asawanipont

The Nation