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Published on April 26, 2008

Kwanchai Rungfapaisarn

The Nation

 

It will be the company's first such plant in Asia outside of Japan.

The company signed an agreement with Amata Corporation to purchase of a 92-rai land plot at its Amata Nakorn Industrial Estate in Chon Buri at a cost of more than Bt300 million.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries executive vice president Katsuhiko Yoshida said that the establishment of its first turbocharger plant in Thailand is in line with the company's policy to nearly double the production capacity of small-size turbochargers from the current 3.6 million units per annum to 6.9 million by the end of fiscal 2011, ending March 2012.

"Demand for turbochargers, which enhance the combustion efficiency of automobile engines, remains robust globally, and this trend is expected to gather further momentum amidst the widening adoption of tighter emission controls," Yoshida said. "Mitsubishi aims to respond to this sharp increase with production capacity enhancement - not only with the new plant in Thailand, but also with a new facility dedicated to turbocharger production to be built on a 75,000-square metre property in Sagamihara in Japan and plant expansion at MHI Equipment Europe BV in the Netherlands. The total investment outlay required for this global expansion initiative, including land acquisition costs, is set at approximately 40 billion yen."

As part of the global expansion, MHI set up a wholly owned subsidiary named Mitsubishi Turbocharger Asia (MTA) in January this year to look after its plant at Amata Nakorn, which will produce cartridges as well as completed turbocharger units.

With registered capital of Bt5.1 billion, MTA will employ about 700 staff. The construction of the factory will be fully completed in January 2009 and operations will start in April that year.

The plant will produce 2.5 million cartridges annually, of which about two million will be exported to the company's turbocharger plant in the Netherlands. Another 500,000 cartridges will be delivered to the local assembling process for making the completed units of turbochargers and will be supplied to local car-makers.

Amata Corporation director and COO Viboon Kromadit said that despite local economic and political difficulties, the company had seen a dramatic increase of the property sales at its flagship industrial estate complexes - Amata Nakorn and Amata City - made by foreign investors, particularly from Japan, who still have great confidence in Thailand.

"We are negotiating with more than 10 foreign investors, mainly from Japan, who want to purchase land plots at our industrial complexes for their local production," said Viboon. "They are in the sectors of automobiles, equipment and machinery and home appliances. The negotiations for the land acquisitions will be finalised in the second quarter of this year."