With new plant, Isuzu aims to meet D-Max demand

The company yesterday held the grand opening its Bt6.5-billion assembly plant at the Gateway City Industrial Estate in Chachoengsao, which will roll out more than 200,000 D-Max pickup and medium/heavy-duty trucks.
However, a need has already been felt to boost production capacity soon.
“We decided to increase investment because we can see much more demand for the D-Max coming in. We’re trying to accelerate the plan as quickly as we can, and our parent company is studying the details of the proposal,” said Hiroshi Nakagawa, president of Tripetch Isuzu Sales Co.
“If we can, we will go ahead next year by expanding this Gateway plant, which has room for expansion. The Samrong plant, with its capacity of 230,000 units per year, has no room for expansion,” he said.
The new Isuzu plant has functional floor space of 600,000 square metres and is located at Isuzu Motors (Thailand)’s Gateway base, which produces medium-sized and large trucks. The new facility is expected to help ease the three-to-four-month wait for vehicles to be delivered to customers.

MANY MORE ORDERS
“And with the D-Max to be introduced in more markets around the world, there will be many more orders,” Nakagawa said. “The domestic market is also growing. So while the new investment plan has not been finalised, we have decided to introduce a second shift at the new Gateway plant. We expect that the 1,800 workers here will be able to cope with production.”
Makoto Kawahara, president of Isuzu Motor (Thailand), said the new plant could better serve increasing demand for Isuzu commercial vehicles.
“Since production commenced in Thailand in 1963, we have already produced more than 3 million vehicles,” he said.
The new plant is equipped with a full-scale production system covering stamping components right up to complete assembly.
“Innovative methods, production systems and cutting-edge technology guarantee consistency in maintaining world-class quality standards comprising a body-assembly plant operated primarily by modern automated robots for welding operations,” he said.
Another Japanese auto-maker, Honda, resumed operations at its two flood-damaged plants in Ayutthaya in April and achieved growth of 140 per cent in the April-September period thanks to the popularity of new models.
During the period, Honda sold 103,709 passenger cars, good for a 15-per-cent market share, and became the country’s second-largest carmaker for the first time.
However, from January to September, it still trailed behind powerhouses Toyota, which sold 380,751 vehicles (38.1-per-cent market share) and Isuzu, which sold 150,003 (15.0-per-cent share). Honda sold 106,444 units (10.6-per-cent market share).
Honda’s assembly plants in Ayutthaya were heavily damaged by last year’s flood.
It has launched nine models since then and plans to introduce a 1.2-litre sedan before this year ends.
In September, Honda, with sales of 19,465 units (14.6-per-cent market share), overtook Isuzu to gain second place while the truck giant sold 17,046 units (12.8-per-cent market share). Toyota, which makes both passenger cars and trucks, was the top seller with 46,568 units (35.4 per cent market share).
Pitak Pruittisarikorn, executive vice president of Honda Automobile (Thailand) Co, said the new models were launched on an accelerated schedule and all had been successful and received very positive customer response.
“The new Honda Civic, which commercially launched in May, got 25,000 orders within five months. A total of 18,000 Honda City CNGs have been ordered since its launch in August. The CR-V that debuted in mid-September had total bookings of 8,000 units within one month.
“Looking at the overall picture until the end of the year, Honda is confident that our turnover will continue to grow steadily, especially for the models that qualify for the first car-buyer rebate programme that ends on December 3,” he said.