Thailand truck production rises

BANGKOK: Mitsubishi Motors will increase its production of pickups in Thailand following the growing demand from European and other export markets.

This year the Japanese manufacturer will build about 30,000 pickups, increasing to 38,000 next year.

The Thai operation -- which only began production last year -- shipped 17,000 trucks to 25 countries in 1996.

To speed up production and cope with the extra demand, Mitsubishi will move some manufacturing processes to a neighboring car plant which has reduced its capacity due to the slowing demand for passenger cars.