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Continental Automotive speaks to the Automotive Focus Group

Thomas Chambers addresses the AFG.

Dr. Iain Corness
The very active Automotive Focus Group (AFG) invited Thomas Chambers, MD Continental Automotive Thailand to address the group’s May meeting, held at the Nova Platinum.
Thomas spoke about the current and future activities in Thailand and ASEAN followed by a Q&A session.
Continental is one of the top five Tier 1 suppliers worldwide and is planning for significant growth in Thailand and the region.
The theme of the presentation revolved around the concept he called “The shift of power to the East.” This would be the result of the supply chain shifting to Asia as opposed to Asia’s previous involvement in the auto industry of just manufacturing parts. He also mentioned that Singapore was becoming an R&D facility for his company, which has its head offices in Germany.
With vehicle production, Thailand and Indonesia have 11 makes each, Vietnam six and Australia three (but will be two by 2016 after Ford ceases its Australian manufacturing plant).
The SE Pacific region produces 5.5 million vehicles each year, of which Thailand produces 55 percent of the total. And in fact, he believes that 50 percent of all cars in the future will come from Asian OEM’s.
Looking to the future, Continental believes that the pick-up production will remain number 1 in Thailand, but the A and B car segment will increase to 38 percent of the total in the next five years.
Megatrends will involve Safety, active and passive and semi-autonomous driving. Clean power will be demanded to assist the environment, intelligent driving aids will increase, including V2V communications.
After the presentation, the AFG members had a networking session with snacks and drinks, supplied by the Nova Platinum.


Thailand’s trade and services sentiment unfavorable in all sectors

Thailand’s trade and services confidence index declined from 55.0 to 52.8 in April compared to the preceding month, a senior official said today.
Chawan Svasti-xuto, acting director of the Small- and Medium-Enterprises Promotion Office, said the sentiment indices were lowered from 51.8 to 50.0 in the wholesale sector, from 54.3 to 51.0 in the retail sector and from 57.0 to 56.1 in the service sector.
Confidence indices on economic and business decreased from 71.7 to 62.3 and from 65.2 to 58.8 respectively.
He predicted a worse situation in the next three months when the index may drop from 51.1 to 41.2 in every business sector while the wholesale, retail and service sectors will dip down from 51.8 to 48.3, from 51.5 to 40.1 and from 50.3 to 39.8 respectively.
Confidence indices for the national economy will slide down from 55.5 to 34.8 and for private business from 51.6 to 27.5.
Chawan said the sliding index in April was mainly due to the lower index at present and in the next three months given business operators’ less sales volume and profit while cost of living has successively surged in parallel with the baht.
Entrepreneurs are concerned that tougher competition, higher costs of goods and labor, the national economic situation and people’s purchasing power, fuel and transport prices and consumers’ shrinking demand for goods and services will have a negative impact on their businesses, he said. (MCOT)


Thai Central Bank to revise 2013 GDP in July

Thailand saw a slowdown in foreign capital inflows in May but has yet to pinpoint if the baht value is on a declining trend, according to a Bank of Thailand (BoT) executive.
Mathee Supapongse, senior director of the BoT’s Macroeconomic and Monetary Policy Department, said Thailand’s economy was stagnant in April but it should successively expand in Q2 thanks to the cut on policy interest rate by 0.25 percent, satisfactory consumer confidence index and the government’s economic stimulation.
The BoT will reassess this year’s economic figures in July before deciding if more actions will have to be taken, he said.
He said the central bank predicted gross domestic product (GDP) growth at 5.1 percent this year and 5 percent next year.
Foreign capital inflows in April were US$4.166 billion and there were signs of a slowdown in May, he said, adding that the private sector’s investment index shrank by 1.1 percent in April year-on-year in based on less active investment on machinery and equipment and the slow recovery of global economy.
The private sector’s consumer index expanded by 1.7 percent while farmers’ income dropped by 7.7 percent year-on-year.
Mathee said the kingdom’s exports reached US$17.251 billion, an increase of 3.7 percent while exporters were confident that the situation would improve in Q2.
Tourism has continually grown, by 2.1 million visitors during the first quarter of 2013, or a 21.6 percent increase, mostly from China and Russia, while the inflation rate was at 2.42 percent. (MCOT)


Commerce Ministry admits mistake in April’s export figure

The Commerce Ministry has announced an unexpected u-turn on Thailand’s export growth in April from an earlier report at 10.52 percent to a 2.89 percent year-on-year.
Vatchari Vimooktayon, permanent secretary for commerce, said the correct volume of Thailand’s exports in April was US$17.409 billion, or a 2.89 percent increase from April 2012.
In baht terms, April’s exports were Bt506.210 billion, or 1.89 percent lower than the same period last year, she said.
In a press conference on May 23, Ms Vatchari reported Thailand’s export volume in April at US$18.698 billion, or a percentage growth of 10.52 year-on-year.
She also reported on that day the country’s exports to Hong Kong reached US$2.177 billion, or a surge by 176.6 percent compared to April 2012.
Vatchari said a review with the Customs Department found an error in the export figure to Hong Kong, which when corrected was only US$887 million, and not US$2.177 billion as earlier announced.
“After all the figures were consolidated, we found that the country’s exports in April increased by only 2.89 percent,” she admitted. (MCOT)


Shippers urge Thai govt for fund to help exporters

The Thai National Shippers’ Council will submit a formal request to the government to consider setting up a Bt100-billion fund to help Thai exporters.
Thai National Shippers’ Council president Nopporn Thepsitta said he was concerned at the baht currency’s direction even though the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) reduced the benchmark interest rate by 0.25 percent on Wednesday.
He viewed that the lowered interest rate should not significantly affect foreign currency inflows and that the baht could be at risk of further fluctuation.
The fund, he said, is meant to encourage competition among Thai exporters. The council is studying where the money should come from. The fund’s functioning would be similar to those the government uses in other projects such as the rice pledging scheme or projects for other forms of agricultural produce.
The Thai National Shippers’ Council still maintains its export forecast at 4.92 percent for this year although the Commerce Ministry lowered its projection from 9 to 7-7.5 percent.
That the council believes that Thai exports will tend to decrease this year was due to the baht fluctuation and the still strong baht currency, despite its recent depreciation, when compared to currencies of other competitor countries.
Nopporn said the Thai government has so far no clear measures to deal with the export problem and should make it a national agenda.
An urgent matter for government action, he said, is to allocate a budget of Bt20-30 billion as a currency hedge for exporters so the baht can be maintained at Bt30 to the dollar, while it should impose more measures to curb the baht’s rise. (MCOT)


ASEAN treasury officials hold minting summit in Pattaya

Officials from Southeast Asian central banks, mints, and equipment and materials suppliers gathered in Pattaya to discuss and exchange information on monetary issues facing the minting industry at the 16th Technical Meeting of Mints in ASEAN.

Treasury Department Director-General Naris Chaiyasoot presents his grand opening speech at the 16th Technical Meeting of Mints in ASEAN.

Representatives from 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations countries joined more than 170 others at the Dusit Thani Hotel May 28 for the seven-day summit. The Royal Thai Mint, which hosted the program, hoped to use the meeting to showcase Thailand’s ability to become a center for minting in the region.
“The 16th meeting marks another stepping stone of TEMAN and the minting history in Thailand,” said Treasury Department Director-General Naris Chaiyasoot. “TEMAN’s spirit is not only about learning, sharing and exchanging information, but also showcasing the latest technology in producing coins from coin-blank manufacturers including machineries and equipment, as well as demonstrating the coins and medals production in Thailand to reflect the kingdom’s potential as the leading skillful producer and oldest countries to produce coins and medals in Asia.”
Naris said that the mint hopes to produce coins and medals for Southeast Asian countries that do not have their own mints. Doing so could generate 10 billion baht for the country once the ASEAN Economic Community begins in 2015, he added.
The meeting’s main, three-day conference saw presentations of 21 papers covering the “future of money,” coinage material and security, development and innovation in the minting industry, process improvement, and advancements in plating.
The Treasury Department presented commemorative coins to all the delegates and offered them for sale as well. The copper and silver coins range in price from 600 baht to 3,500 baht and remain on sale at the Dusit Thani.


 
HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]

Continental Automotive speaks to the Automotive Focus Group

Thailand’s trade and services sentiment unfavorable in all sectors

Thai Central Bank to revise 2013 GDP in July

Commerce Ministry admits mistake in April’s export figure

Shippers urge Thai govt for fund to help exporters

ASEAN treasury officials hold minting summit in Pattaya  

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