Govt, manufacturers to discuss assistance

FTI officials were scheduled to meet Industry Minister Wannarat Charnnukul today to seek financial and other assistance in getting flood-hit factories up and running again, federation chairman Payungsak Chartsuthipol said.
The federation would propose that the government suspend collecting electricity and water bills from the affected factories during a recovery period, and employ tax measures to help them reduce their costs, such as deducting machinery-repair bills, Payungsak said.
It would also ask the government to set up a Bt10-billion fund to extend low-interest loans to flooded factories to use for repairs, FTI secretary-general Sommart Kunset said.
Wannarat said one likely relief measure would be a waiver by the Board of Investment (BoI) of duties on replacement machinery imported by factory owners. More measures would be devised, he said, pending today’s discussion. The minister added that the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Bank of Thailand had set aside Bt2 billion for low-interest loans to affected manufacturers.
Narapote Thewtanom, deputy governor of the Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand (IEAT), said the Saharat Nakorn Industrial Estate in flood-hit Ayutthaya was likely to take more than five months to fully recover, up from previous estimates of between three and five months.
Total damage at the estate could exceed Bt30 billion, depending on how fast it can recover. The height of the flood water there was estimated at four metres.

Evaluating the damage
Narapote said the IEAT would meet manufacturers operating in the Saharat Nakorn estate today at the Bang Pa-In Industrial Estate in Ayutthaya to assess damage and discuss relief measures for workers and operators.
The Saharat Nakorn estate has 43 manufacturing plants with 14,696 workers and a total investment value of Bt9.4 billion. Japanese manufacturing facilities represent the largest proportion of investment in the estate at 70 per cent, followed by Thai-owned plants with 20 per cent.
The Hi-Tech and Bang Pa-In industrial estates had not been hit by the floods, but the IEAT was watching the situation closely, Narapote said.
Amara Charoengitwattanagun, an independent director at Rojana Industrial Park in Ayutthaya, said the park’s operators had not been able to assess total damage at the estate, which was hit by flooding on Saturday.
Approximately 1,000 rai of Rojana’s total 10,000 rai was affected, encompassing 10 manufacturing plants, including Honda’s 200-rai site. The height of the water was approximately 1 metre.
She said Rojana estate is building barriers to stop water spreading to the rest of the park. If the entire estate floods, damage was likely to far exceed the expected Bt30 billion clean-up bill at Saharat Nakorn Industrial Estate, she said.
Honda has two manufacturing plants at Rojana Industrial Park, Ayutthaya, with total investment in Thailand of Bt21 billion. The company commenced its second manufacturing facility with an investment value of Bt6.2 billion at the estate in 2008. The auto plant is the production base of many Honda models including Accord, Civic, CR-V, Jazz and City. Honda has total production capacity of 240,000 units per year at Rojana.