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