Managing director and CEO Abdul Halim Harun said should the Thai government impose

higher import duties, it would translate into a price increase of a "few thousand ringgit" per vehicle.

"This will result in a less-

competitive situation. We will continue exporting units to Thailand, but if this [pricing] affects our sales, we will have to relook our strategy," he told reporters on Thursday after the launch of Toyota's latest forklift, the Mastery 8 Series.

Harun said UMW had no choice but to abide by the duties imposed, because it had purchased completely knocked-down units for export.

He said the International Trade and Industry Ministry would be discussing the issue with its Thai counterparts.

"We have not got any feedback yet, and we are assured that the government will take up this matter," he said, adding that the Thais recently formed a new government and had yet to set a date for discussions.

It was reported recently that Thailand had refused to lower the 20-per-cent import duties imposed on vehicles produced in Malaysia to 5 per cent unless approved permits (APs) were removed.

Thailand had claimed that

APs were non-tariff barriers

preventing vehicles from coming into the Malaysian market.

Asean countries must abide

by the Common Effective Preferential Tariff (CEPT) scheme, whereby goods traded within Asean that meet the 40-per-

cent Asean content rule, would have their tariffs cut to 0-5 per cent.

The CEPT is the implementing mechanism of the regional trade pact within the Asean Free-Trade Area.

On the group's target to

produce 100,000 vehicles by

year's end, Harun said the Camry, launched recently, had re-

ceived good response and

would help the company achieve this target. The company re-

ceived orders for 2,600 Camrys last week.

Harun added that the company was in the early stages of expanding the production capacity of subsidiary Perusahaan Otomobil Kedua to 25,000 units by the end of next year, from 200,000 currently.

On sales of the latest fork-

lift, Kuah Kock Heng, execu-

tive director of UMW Corp's Industrial Equipment Division, said the company planned to sell 1,500 units within the next 12 months.

He expects the new forklift

to boost UMW Corp's market

share to 55 per cent by the end of next year, from 48 per cent currently.

"Up to Wednesday, we have received orders for 150 units," he added.

Kuah said the forklift busi-

ness also encompassed a fleet-management programme, whereby clients could rent units from UMW Corp, which would service and maintain these units.

"We plan to invest 70 million ringgit (Bt705 million) to increase the fleet size by 1,000 units from the existing 2,000 units within 18 months," he said.

To date, it has spent 42 million ringgit on this programme, with 250 clients in the electrical and electronic, logistics and food and beverage sectors.

UMW Corp expects to achieve total sales of 230 million ringgit by year's end, contributing some 3 per cent to group revenues.

The Star

Asia News Network

kuala lumpur