Mitsubishi shows faith in Thailand
Mitsubishi Motors (Thailand) is continuing to expand its investment in the Kingdom by setting aside Bt1 billion to increase production capacity to 500,000 units next year.
President Nobuyuki Murahashi yesterday said the company had originally planned to increase capacity to 500,000 vehicles in 2015 from 350,000 units this year, but had now revised its plan so that capacity would reach 400,000 units this year.
As a result, the local unit has decided to bring forward the 500,000-unit capacity schedule by two years, to 2013.
"When our new production capacity starts to operate next year, Thailand will be Mitsubishi’s largest production base for cars in the world, replacing Japan," he said, adding that the country would also be its manufacturing base for future car models.
Murahashi said that although Europe still faced an economic crisis, demand for exported cars in Asia continued to grow. The company is therefore moving its export focus from Europe to the Asian market, and Thailand in particular.
Domestic demand for eco-cars and the government’s first-time car buyer scheme have resulted in strong growth this year. This has boosted overall vehicle demand in Thailand to an estimated record of 1.35 million units over the full year, he said.
Mitsubishi has revised up-|ward its Thai sales target from |the previous 120,000 units this year to 126,000 units following |the positive feedback concern-|ing its eco-car, the Mirage, which has 20,000 booked sales to date. Some 18,000 Mirages will be |delivered to customers by year-end, and the remaining 2,000 in the first quarter of next year, he said.
Meanwhile, the company will continue to build the Nissan Navara pickup for Nissan Motors (Thailand) until March, 2015. The allocated production capacity is 60,000 units per year.
"We believe car demand in Thailand will be between 1.1 million and 1.2 million units next year, following the country’s economic growth," Murahashi added.
