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.