SCT expands abroad for better efficiency

"In the second half of the year, we'll set up subsidiaries in four strategic locations: Tanzania; Poland; Houston, Texas; and Beijing," managing director Kalin Sarasin said yesterday.

These will be the company's first ventures in Africa and Europe.

He said the Tanzanian subsidiary would be responsible for the entire African market, which was growing rapidly, while the Polish company would be a trading centre covering Eastern Europe and Russia.

The new company in Houston will venture into the high-potential market for trading plastic resins and chemical goods.

Kalin said SCT also planned to expand its recycling-station business in neighbouring countries to sustain its growth.

Recycling stations are factories where the company purchases used paper and processes it into raw material for SCG's paper-manufacturing plants in Thailand and other customers.

"We've changed to a door-to-door strategy to try to complete the entire supply chain in a bid to lower our costs," he said.

The company now operates eight paper-recycling factories in Asean, including plants in Cambodia, Laos and the Philippines. Recently, it opened another such factory in Samut Prakan's Bang Pu Industrial Estate, with a total recycling capacity of 3,000 tonnes a month.

Kalin said two recycling stations would be established in Vietnam and that the company was considering buying a plant in Singapore.

Meanwhile, company turnover in the first five months of this year reached Bt30.7 billion, a leap of 60 per cent year on year. This was due to rising demand for coal in the industrial sector in face of surging oil prices and increased prices for its major products.

Its projected turnover for the full year is Bt70 billion, up from Bt61 billion last year. About 60 per cent will come from the coal-trading and recycling businesses and the other 40 per cent from construction materials and other industrial products.

At present, SCT generates 34 per cent of its turnover from imports, 56 per cent from exports and 10 per cent from offshore trading. Main imported products are aluminium, coal, steel and paper waste, while top export goods include cement, construction materials and tapioca flour.

About 65 per cent of the company's sales involve non-SCG products, while the rest involve products from within the group.