Ford May Stop Thailand Investment

[blaze]

But don't you guys realize that the current leaders of Thailand are all EVIL!!!!! You have no rights.

Now where is my burrito

Your nick doesn't give you away- but your pathetic attempts at sarcasm suggest that you really are a moron. Surely if you want to parody members of this board, you could do so at a level slightly above that of an eight year old attempting to parody her baby sitter.

Edited October 9, 2007 by blaze

[Rhys]

Bottom Line RULES...

[sriracha john]

Honda to expand investment in Thailand

BANGKOK, Oct 9 – Honda, a leading Japanese automaker, would go ahead with its plan to produce eco-car project in Thailand with a plan to build a 6.7 Billion Baht new assembly plant with an additional investment fund of 6.2 Billion Baht, according to Honda Automobile (Thailand) Co., Ltd. President Kenji Otaka.

Mr. Otaka said Honda planned to invest 6.7 Billion Baht to build the new assembly plant to produce an environmental friendly car or eco-car in the central province of Ayuthaya under a support plan of the Board of Investment (BoI).

Honda would also invest additional 6.2 Billion Baht to expand production capacity to increase the company's overall output in Thailand from 120,000 units to 240,000 units annually, he said.

- MCOT

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Mazda, Ford to build car plant in Thailand

TOKYO - US auto giant Ford and its Japanese partner Mazda said Tuesday they will develop a $500 million (17 Billion Baht) plant to build passenger cars in Thailand, eyeing the growing market in Southeast Asia.

The plant is expected to be operational in 2009 and create 8,000 jobs, 2,000 of them directly and the rest through suppliers and related businesses, Mazda Motor Corp. said in a statement.

Ford Motor Corp. and Mazda, in which the US automaker holds a one-third stake, will evenly split the investment of more than 500 million dollars by their joint venture, it said.

- AFP (9 October, 2007)

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Thailand: Volkswagen planning to invest in components manufacturing plant

Reports indicate that Volkswagen is considering significant investment and joint ventures in Thailand to develop a worldwide component production hub there.

- Automotive World / October 9, 2007

Edited October 9, 2007 by sriracha john

[pointofview]

But companies should just be happy that Thailand lets them be here! After all, some of them are just after money.

Anyway, Ford probably isn't really a "quality" investor.

Exactly, what kind of investors are they. Wanting to invest huge sums in thailand, create jobs and security for thia citizens - and then have the audacity to want to make money. Next thing they will be wanting to have some foreign guy working in thailand looking out for thier interests.

[mythailife]

Why stop investment when a new plant is slated to come online? Am I wrong or do they want to build a new plant to focus on putting out trucks?

MyThaiLife

[sriracha john]

Why stop investment when a new plant is slated to come online? Am I wrong or do they want to build a new plant to focus on putting out trucks?

MyThaiLife

The thread title derives from the original post (from January). Recent developments as detailed in Post #94 seem to indicate a reversal, as not only Ford, but two other major automakers are all preparing to make huge investments in Thailand.

[chinthee]

I agree that the considerations of major MNCs with significant operations and massive existing investments in Thailand is much different from small investors in Thailand.

It makes perfect sense for Honda, Ford and the other Auto producers to expand their already nicely working operations. No administration, whether democratic or military is going to negatively affect those.

I think the frustration felt is by smaller investors or business people trying to do business in Thailand as foreigners, and other large investors that do not have operations already in Thailand. For those, the FBA, the coup, and other uncertainties make it not an attractive place mostly at this time.

[sriracha john]

but which the non-pre-existing-in-Thailand Volkswagen, for example, seems to be ok with....

[quiksilva]

I agree that the considerations of major MNCs with significant operations and massive existing investments in Thailand is much different from small investors in Thailand.

It makes perfect sense for Honda, Ford and the other Auto producers to expand their already nicely working operations. No administration, whether democratic or military is going to negatively affect those.

I think the frustration felt is by smaller investors or business people trying to do business in Thailand as foreigners, and other large investors that do not have operations already in Thailand. For those, the FBA, the coup, and other uncertainties make it not an attractive place mostly at this time.

There are plenty of foreign and local downstream SME's supplying these automakers, and these will all benefit. In fact with this latest news (Ford and Mazda getting into the B car production market) I wouldn't be surprised to see even more invest here.

Good news for Thailand, at last!

Edited October 10, 2007 by quiksilva

[samran]

I think one of the things to remember with all these car manufacturers is that they are experts at getting what they want out of government, and will use any method to do so.

GM and Mitsubsishi are classics in Australia for holding governments to electoral ransom to get what they want in terms of tax concessions, tariff barriers and investment money. As a result, the car industry in Australia is one of the last protected industries, with lower efficiency than other sectors. I dare say they do so everywhere else in the world.

Now while the FBA was a concern back at the beginning of the year - especially for smaller and medium sized firms who just want to play on a level playing field with some certainty, when a big car manufacturer speaks, always, always, always assume that their motives are more self interested than for others.