Japan's Mitsubishi sets up marketing base in Thailand to woo foreign orders
Japanese conglomerate Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) has established a mar-
keting and information-gathering base in Thailand in a bid
to attract expanded inter-
national orders for its gas-tur-bine combined-cycle plants and other power-generation equipment.
The new subsidiary, Mitsubishi Power Systems (Thailand) (MPS-T), commenced full-scale operations last Friday. Through this new base, MHI plans to enhance its customer- tailored marketing activities in Thailand and neighbour- ing countries, where large in-creases in power demand are expected. With a staff of 11, MPS-T is owned by Mitsubishi Power Systems Asia Pacific (MPS-AP) with a 48-per-cent stake, MHI with a one per cent stake, while local Thai companies have 51 per cent. MPS-AP was established on July 1 to serve as a head office overseeing MHI's power-system business throughout Southeast Asia. MPS-T is MHI's first subsidiary in Thailand dedicated exclusively to power-system operations. Electricity demand is expected to increase sharply in Thailand on the back of solid economic growth here in recent years. As a consequence, power-plant construction projects are being planned in significant numbers. Plans call for about another 10,000 megawatts in power-generation capacity to be added from 2011-5. Under Thai government policy, the country's electricity market will be liberalised further, and many independent power-producers are expected to enter the market, rivalling existing utility companies. MHI opted to establish a regional base for marketing and information-gathering dedicated to the power-system business in recognition of the need to strengthen its capability to respond quickly and effectively to the needs of the region's diversifying customers. In tandem with MPS-AP, MPS-T will explore the needs of the expanding power-generation market by aggressively conducting proposal-oriented marketing activities. It will also widely cultivate the local market's trust in MHI by responding precisely to customer needs through involvement in various projects from their initial stage. At the outset, the subsidiary will engage mainly in marketing and information-gathering, but in the future MHI plans for MPS-T to become a window for engineering, procurement and construction contracts, as needed. The power-system business is one of MHI's core pillars for generating profits in its 2006 medium-term business plan, and increasing the company's share in the international markets is very important. Following the establishment of the new base in Thailand, MHI intends to probe establishing other foreign bases for its power-system operations.
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