Staedtler draws up plans to expand Thai plants ahead of AEC

Staedtler, one of the world's leading manufacturers of writing, colouring and drawing instruments, will expand its Thai manufacturing facilities for mid- and lower-range pencils and other products.

The expansion of its factories in Lat Krabang will be in line with the company's policy of promoting Thailand as its manufacturing hub for mid- and lower-priced products.

Meanwhile, the company's factories at its home base in Germany will focus on premium and high-technology pencils and other writing instruments.

Rolf-Dieter Daniel, managing director of Staedtler (Thailand), said yesterday said the move was in line with the company's strategy to export mid- and lower-range products from the Kingdom to all over the world.

The company wants to cash in on the full open-trade situation in the region when the Asean Economic Community (AEC) is implemented in 2015, as well as other free-trade agreements to be negotiated between the European Union and Asean members.

"We have to pay 20-per-cent duty in importing pencils and other writing instruments from Germany to Thailand. However, pencils and other writing instruments from China, which has an FTA with Thailand, can be imported without any import duty. Products from China now flood the Thai market with cheap prices," said the executive, who was president of the German-Thai Chamber of Commerce until his term expired on Tuesday.

He said Staedtler had been in Thailand for almost 20 years, operating through three companies: one marketing firm and two factories. One of the plants makes plastic writing instruments, such as erasers, ball pens, highlighters and text markers, and the other produces black-lead and colour pencils.

About 80 per cent of the locally manufactured products are exported to many markets around the world. The company achieved Bt400 million in export sales last year.

The company also posted Bt280 million in local sales last year, of which 60 per cent was from locally made items and the remainder from imported products.

Staedtler has one other Asean manufacturing facility, located in Indonesia.

"Our main facilities are in Germany, which represent about 80 per cent of our global production," said Daniel.

He added that in his role as president of the German-Thai Chamber of Commerce, he visited Burma in December, just one day before US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit to the country.

"I met with ministers, the local chamber of commerce, some entrepreneurs and companies in Burma. Everyone gave the same message, that the [opening-up] process in Burma is irreversible. There is big potential in the country," said Daniel.

However, Burma still has much to do, including revamping the currency system, he said. The official exchange rate is about 6 kyat per US dollar, but in the black market, one dollar is equal to 800 kyat.

Local infrastructure in Burma, such as telecommunications, roads and public transportation, also needs to be improved dramatically, which will take about three to four years to achieve, he added.

The executive said many Thai business people still feared what was to come with the implementation of the AEC, whereas the single market would in fact create a big opportunity for Thailand.

"Thailand is very strong in certain sectors, such as automotive, electronics, food processing and tourism. Since we are strong in those spheres, we will be able to cash in on the big market of Asean," he said.