It will be the fourth plant for a company that saw sales growth of 27 per cent in the first quarter.

CEO Pongsak Lothongkam said yesterday that initial investment for the plant should be about Bt1 billion. He and the company's board will work out where the financing will come from and where the plant will be located by the end of next month. Funds might come from bank loans or warrant issues.

Construction should start in August and be finished by next year's third or fourth quarter, Pongsak said.

SVI's two plants in Thailand and one in China make products in six categories: industrial controls, office automation, telecommunications, audiovisual, automotive electronics and medical equipment.

Both Thai plants are operating at full capacity, and demand keeps increasing, Pongsak said.

The proposed new plant will bring dramatic sales growth, perhaps pushing up sales from this year's target of Bt5.16 billion to Bt6.2 billion next year.

The Chinese plant, which opened late last year, was losing Bt7 million to Bt8 million per quarter but should dobetter in the second half of this year, because of three new industrial clients.

SVI's first-quarter sales grew 27 per cent on year to Bt1.27 billion, while gross profit margin was up 2.5 percentage points to 10.8 per cent.

Industrial controls made up 62 per cent of sales, followed by office automation at 25 per cent. Scandinavia contributed  more than half of sales.

Nitida Asawanipont

The Nation