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.