Nissan to make Thailand its production centre

The company also plans to take a substantial share of the eco-car market when it launches a sales campaign next year.

At present, Thailand is the company's second-largest production centre for pickups, after the United States.

However, the economic slowdown in that country has hit its sales there dramatically.

"Thailand will become our production hub for pickups since the fall-off in sales and production in the US. This will be our main production centre for exports to Asean countries, the Middle East and Australia," said chief operating officer Toshiyuki Shiga.

Nissan Motor (Thailand) has an annual production capacity for pickups of 120,000 units but only been operating at 50-per-cent capacity this year, due to plunging exports and low domestic demand.

Shiga also asked Industry Minister Charnchai Chairungrueng for measures to stimulate demand in Thailand's pickup market.

Charnchai recently led a Board of Investment delegation to Japan.

Meanwhile, Nissan plans to launch its eco-cars in the market by next year's first quarter.

"We expect eco-cars to increase our share of the domestic market from 5.5 per cent in terms of units sold. Exporting eco-cars to Japan will be a first for the company," said Piengjai Kaewsuwan, vice president for government relations at Nissan Motor (Thailand).

In addition to making Thailand its production hub in Southeast Asia, Nissan will establish a research and development centre, in order to accelerate development of advanced technology.

Piengjai, who is also chair of the Federation of Thai Industries' Automotive Industry Club, said the auto industry was beginning to see strong signs of recovery.

"We're confident sales and production will be on an upward trend in the second half, as some companies have already started to recruit more employees. If that is the case, our output may exceed our target of 940,000 units for this year," she said.

Piengjai said improvement was expected in the auto industry next year but probably at a slow pace, due to fluctuating oil prices.