ATO Asia Turnouts sees sales surge

“Though we expect our sales are likely to exceed the target next year, thanks to more projects to be open to bidding, we’re maintaining next year sales target of Bt300 million,” said the company’s factory manager Somjit Lawan.
He said the company was planning to pitch for jobs involving four routes for track-doubling railway projects, which were expected to be open for bidding next year, and also metro line projects such as the Orange Line ( Thai Culture Centre-Min Buri) and the Red Line (Bang Sue-Rangsit).
The four track-doubling projects are the routes running from Jira to Mapkabao, Lop Buri to Paknam, Nakhon Pathom to Hua Hin, and Prachuap Khiri Khan to Chumphon.
“The value for turnouts for these projects amounts to about Bt2 billion,’’ said Somjit, adding that the company’s current works are valued at Bt360 million.
Established in 1998, ATO Asia Turnouts is a 51:49 joint venture between Italian-Thai Development Plc and Germany-based Vossloh Switch System one of the world’s largest switch system companies.
Located in the compound of Italian-Thai Industrial Complex n Saraburi, ATO has a production capacity of 50 turnouts per month.
As a fully-integrated turnout producer, Somjit said the company used a local content of as high as 70 per cent except for some parts such as tracks and frogs.
He said the company’s jobs had included the mass transit Green Line, the MRT Blue Line and the Purple Line.

Delay in bid process
Despite the optimism over next year’s performance, Somjit said the company might miss its sales target this year due to delays in many project bids.
The sales target this year is an estimated Bt120 million.
In response to the lower sales figure, the company has expanded into overseas markets and is considering potential railway projects in Myanmar, Indonesia and Philippines.
“So far we have received jobs in Malaysia and Cambodia worth Bt40 million and Bt46 million, respectively,” said Somjit.
Also producing railway concrete bearers, the company is waiting for a pending order of 700,000 concrete bearers from a mining company in Australia after having sold and delivered 600,000 bearers to it the past few years.
Somjit said the company was delivering more than 10,000 concrete bearers to turnouts in Cambodia, with demand for 200,000 bearers.
“Total turnover for products produced in the Italian-Thai Industrial Complex are worth about Bt3 billion a year, including turnouts,” he said,