GM opens $640m plant in Thailand
GM opens $640m plant in Thailand
RAYONG, Thailand (AP): General Motors Corp. (GM) formally
opened its new US$640 million assembly plant in Thailand Monday,
giving a boost to the Southeast Asian country's hopes of becoming
the "Detroit of Asia."
GM's President G. Richard Wagoner Jr. drove the first 7-seat
Chevrolet "Zafira" off the production line at the GM Thailand
Assembly Center at Rayong, 145 kilometers south of Bangkok, in
front of its 600-strong workforce.
Completed 16 months behind schedule because of Asia's economic
crisis of 1997, the plant is set to manufacture 8,000 units this
year, rising to 40,000 next year. Some 85 to 90 percent of
production will be for export.
GM originally planned for a 100,000 unit capacity, but scaled
back its plans after the crisis knocked the bottom out of the
regional auto market.
Sales are now recovering. Thailand's exports of automobiles
and parts soared by 80 percent in 1999.
Wagoner paid tribute to the Rayong workforce, declaring that
the plant's quality standards would allow export to "some of the
most discriminating markets in the world."
The plant will be dedicated to producing the Zafira, a cross
between a minivan and a more traditional sedan, which is set to
be the first vehicle from Thailand's burgeoning auto industry to
be exported to Europe.
It is also set for export to Latin America, Asia and
Australasia, extending the East Asian markets that most Thai auto
production has served until now.
Thailand has turned into an offshore manufacturing platform
for many of the world's biggest automakers from Japan and the
United States. Most originally intended to serve the large Thai
domestic market, but shifted their strategies toward export after
the economic crisis bit heavily into local purchases.
A statement from GM said more than 275,000 Zafiras have been
ordered since the car's European debut in April last year.
Around 450 have so far been ordered in Thailand. The first
owner took delivery Monday but others will begin receiving their
vans in June.