Potential auto demand in Asia enormous: Auto parts supplier<\/p>\n
TOKYO (AFP): Potential demand for automobiles in Asia is still
\n\"enormous\" despite a recent slump in the auto sector,
\nparticularly in Thailand, a major auto parts supplier to Ford
\nMotor Co. said Monday.<\/p>\n
Charles Szuluk, president of Visteon Automotive Systems, told
\na news conference that his company would not change its business
\nstrategy in the region following the Southeast Asian currency
\ncrisis.<\/p>\n
\"The answer is, 'Don't panic,'\" said Szuluk, who visited Japan
\nto attend this year's Tokyo Motor Show scheduled for later this
\nweek in Chiba, east of the capital.<\/p>\n
\"Projection for the Asia-Pacific by the year 2015 is to be,
\nfrom a volume point of view, equivalent to North America,\" Szuluk
\nsaid. \"Potential is enormous.\"<\/p>\n
Szuluk said the company would further expand its operation in
\nthe region with plans to newly build plants in Thailand and India
\nthis year, despite its projection that the plants would not be
\nprofitable until 2015.<\/p>\n
\"If you don't have a long-term view, you won't be successful
\nin business,\" the company president said.<\/p>\n
Visteon, which was spun off in September from the US auto
\ngiant to become the world's second largest auto parts
\nmanufacturer, operates 74 plants in 17 countries.<\/p>\n
In Thailand, car sales fell by a massive 76.6 percent in
\nSeptember year-on-year while total auto sales for the first nine
\nmonths of the year declined 26.4 percent, reports said earlier
\nthis month.<\/p>\n
The massive drop in vehicle sales comes as the country
\nweathers its worst economic storm since World War II which has
\ndrastically cut consumer spending power in the once booming Asian
\neconomic Tiger nation.<\/p>\n
Car makers in the country blamed the slowdown on the local
\nmarket on collapsed spending power and higher prices following
\nthe flotation of the baht in July, triggering regionwide currency
\nwoes.<\/p>\n
Szuluk said the company had so far no impact of Thailand's
\neconomic crisis.<\/p>\n
\"If we are in major operations -- importing and hiring -- that
\nmay be an issue, but we don't have an impact today because we are
\nin a process of producing there,\" he said.<\/p>\n
During the news conference, he called for a weaker dollar in
\nan effort to secure profit in other countries. \"Our businesses
\nposition that a right balance is 100 yen to 110 yen,\" he said.<\/p>\n
The dollar stood at 121.22 yen in late afternoon trading in
\nTokyo, up from a mid-morning level here of 121.12 yen and 120.70
\nyen in New York late Friday.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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