Chevrolet gears up Thai production for buoyant domestic and overseas markets

Company president Martin Apfel, who is chairman for Thailand and Southeast Asia of General Motors (Thailand) and Chevrolet Sales (Thailand), yesterday said the company would increase its capacity by three shifts to serve higher demand both domestically and internationally.

The company is set to start exporting Colorado pickups to non-Asian markets on April 23, and plans to export the Trailblazer PPV, which was launched last October, in the second half of the year. "We are now sending specialist engineers to work with GM’s auto-part suppliers at their facilities in a bid to boost capacity as planned," said Apfel.

He believes GM could use a greater number of local auto parts in the future, resulting in the local-content ratio exceeding the current 70 per cent used for Colorado production.

The local-content ratio for Captiva production is 40 per cent, and 20 per cent for the Cruze.

"Increasing local content is a policy GM has followed continuously over the years," he said, adding that it had spent US$110 million (Bt3.4 billion) on domestic auto parts in 2009. The level is expected to reach $1.2 billion this year.

As to the potential risk of more severe floods this year, Apfel said the company believed the government must find a workable way to ensure flood prevention in the country.

However, GM has not yet been told anything about the plan, he said.

GM has an executive, who is responsible for the auto-parts network and has experience of last year’s disasters in Japan and Thailand, to take care of contingency planning for parts supply in the event of any further unprecedented events.

Meanwhile, Chevrolet posted lucrative sales growth of 126 per cent to 15,300 units in the first quarter, which was above the industry average of 8 per cent.

An increase in Colorado sales contributed to the impressive growth, with 7,918 vehicles sold in the period. The Captiva sport-utility vehicle accounted for 3,032 sales, the Cruze for 2,449 and the Aveo for 1,904.

Apfel said orders for pickups and the Aveo could be fulfilled quickly, while Cruze and Captiva orders entailed delivery delays of two to three months. Cruze production still faces a lack of central processing units because of the Japanese disaster a year ago.

The company is also battling a logistics problem as it has an insufficient number of trailers. It wants the government to relax restrictions on a temporary basis so that vehicles can be imported. GM has a number of vehicles in Indonesia that are ready to be shipped to Thailand immediately, Apfel said.

He said the company plans to launch a new small car, the Sonic, this year.

It will also increase the number of Thai dealers from the current 92 to 110 this year, as well as renovating many of its showrooms.

Showroom renovation is 25 per cent complete, with 50 per cent expected to have received a make-over by year-end.