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Since the truck-maker has production facilities in Indonesia and Malaysia, it is not profitable to keep the Thai operations active. The Thai plant has a production capacity of 2,700 units.

Although the company's sales grew 29 per cent to 2,338 units in 2007, in 2008 sales crashed to 1,536 units due to the global economic crisis and domestic political instability.

Mitsubishi Fuso Thailand sold 671 units in the first four months of this year, up 27 per cent year on year. In 2007 Mitsubishi Fuso had 10.6 per cent of the market.

"We will still continue to serve our customers by importing vehicles and we stay committed to our current customers. Thailand is a very important market for us. The company will launch new models which are compliant with Euro 3 emission standards this August," Rudolf Steinle, president of Mitsubishi Fuso Truck (Thailand), said yesterday.

Mitsubishi Fuso has been assembling small, medium and large trucks locally for over 25 years, with 25-40 per cent local content from more than 50 suppliers, including Somboon Group.

The company will now take advantage of the Asean Free Trade Area and import trucks from its Indonesian plant, which can produce 35,000 units per year.

The Malaysian plant has a capacity of 1,400 units. Spare parts will also be imported from the Malaysian or Indonesian factories.

To better serve its customers, Mitsubishi Fuso will move its spare parts warehouse to the Mercedes Benz Competence Centre located on Bang Na-Trat Road.

It will also spend Bt50 million on an IT system to speed up parts delivery.

Steinle said the plant shutdown was part of a restructuring plan by Mitsubi-shi Fuso Truck and Bus Corp Japan.

In Japan, the firm will close its Oye plant near Nagoya and move bus production to its Toyama site by the middle of next year. The shutdowns in Japan and Thailand will result in a loss of 2,300 jobs.

The Thai truck market is expected to shrink by 30 per cent this year to 13,000 units, from 17,000 last year.