A Small Bit of Good News for the Industrial Estate Sector
The Industrial estate sector has been dominated by the fall out from the suspension of projects at Map Ta Phut and concerns about Japanese companies losing confidence in Thailand as a manufacturing location.
Finally we have a little bit of good news.
Hutchinson Technology (Thailand) has committed 4.3 billion baht to build a hard disk drive parts production plant at Rojana Industrial Park North of Bangkok.
The company broke ground yesterday on a 16 Rai (6.4 acre plot).
When you ask people what Thailand exports many people would say rice. In fact Thailand’s export of hi-tech products is over six times greater than agricultural products. According to the Board of Investment (BOI) Thailand was the world’s thirteenth largest exporter of electrical and electronics in 2008. Since 2005 Thailand has supplied about half of the world hard disk drives.
Another bit of positive news was the announcement by family run meat processor Thai-German Meat that they are going ahead with a one billion baht new investment in a factory on a 12 Rai (4.8 acre) plot at the Wellgrow Industrial Estate East of Bangkok.
The company specializes in Western meat products such as sausage, ham, bacon, salami and dried ham.
A sausage factory is not as hi-tech as a disk drive parts plant but it shows diversity in Thailand’s industrial base and more importantly confidence among some manufacturers to proceed with projects.
By: James Pitchon, Executive Director
