Philips sales hit by smuggled Chinese-made lamps

Philips Electronics (Thailand), importer and distributor of Philips electrical products, said smuggled low-priced lamps from mainland China were to blame for drastic falls in the company’s sales this year. Those Chinese-made products are lower in quality but are normally priced 50-75 percent lower.

Sales of Philips compact fluorescent lamps have fallen more than 50 percent in the first 10 months of the year, admitted PET’s marketing director on electrical products Mr Pallop Navapapipat. The economic crisis has forced customers to turn to low-priced products, he said.

Lamps from China have lower service lives - about 8,000 hours in average - while Philips claims 10,000 hours or longer a utility life for the company’s products. However, an imported Chinese-made lamp is with only a price tag of between Baht 100-200, while a Philips’ lamp costs nearly Baht 400.

Philips has lost housing estate customers under market slump; Chinese products smuggled across Mekong River with prices between Baht 60-70, Philips distributing agents in northern and northeastern provinces in trouble; Chinese-made lamps meet standards required by the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand.

Yontrakit group urges early tax structure on imported auto parts

The government has been urged to release early information about the new tax and tariff structure on imported parts, as the local content rule, for many years requiring that 40-60 percent of cars assembled in Thailand use locally made products and parts, is to be scrapped from January 1.

Yontrakit group, by the subsidiary YMC, has switched to make Audi and Volkswagen cars after the company had given back the right to assemble and to distribute BMW cars in the country to German’s Byeriche Motoren Werker (Thailand). YMC has also assembled France’s Peugeot cars for the domestic market.

Yontrakit will turn all the machines used to make BMW cars into a new assembly line for Audi and Volkswagen models, said a Yontrakit source. It would normally take 12 months in advance for the make of a new car and the tax structure is among important factors in calculating the investment, said the source.

BMW has agreed to buy back about 2,000 units of BMW cars in stock; Yontrakit received a full backup from Germany’s Audi AG which is to set up a headquarters here; company ready to start new assembly line in 2000; Baht 150 million invested in laser welding beam for BMW Series 7s.

Fuji Xerox hoped to make Baht 100 million from sales of used machines after Asiad

Thai Fuji Xerox, the official sponsor supplying office machines and equipment to the 13th Asia Games, hopes to make another Baht 100 million from those used machines after the games are over. The sales campaign for over 2,000 units of copying machines and others will be run in the first quarter next year.

According to Chairman Mr Pratin Buranabanpot, Thai Fuji Xerox has supplied 357 units of copying machines, 394 multifunction fax machines and 1,800 units of printers for computers to the Asian Games committee for official use in three main centers. Another 200 units of those machines have been out for rent, mainly to foreign news teams, he said.

Those used machines would still be very new and in excellent condition after just over two weeks of work during the Asiad and would be good for any business, said Mt Pratin. The company has spent Baht 40 million in advertising during the games, he said.

Machines are reported to be with special prices complemented by Japanese mother company; Xerox has been the brand name in world and regional sports events for over 30 years; the company has been responsible for all the batches and ID cards in the Asiad.

British group to expand music and sport training business

Progress Group, in cooperation with Trinity College of London, has planned to expand off-curriculum and recreational services in Thailand, the plan which includes opening up more centers and more products in music and sports training, in line with the British mother company’s five-year expansion plan in this country.

According to Progress Center’s executive director Mr Apicharn Sivayathorn, the company has been appointed by Trinity College London to be the music testing center in Thailand. All the activities will be conducted by experts from Trinity School of Music Bangkok and the center would be opened to customers from 3 years of age, said Mr Apicharn.

Services in arts, computer, English teaching and training in swimming, diving and tae kwan do will be offered to the public, said Mr Apicharn. Progress Centers will be expanded to cater up to 500 trainees next year, he said.

Center also to tap from thousands of students heading for universities; Progress will be all-in-one centers; services, by experienced trainers/teachers will meet international standards.

BMA expected to favor IBM in Baht 700-million bid for computers

The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration has been accused of having too tough rules for open bids in BMA’s procurement plan for computers and network peripherals worth Baht 700, which have been seen to favor major computer companies. Only IBM (Thailand) is seen to be qualified for the technical specification, said industry sources.

Computer networks will be installed at local schools under BMA, under an educational development plan in 1999; another attempt in purchasing computer hardware worth Baht 400 was in 1997, but failed because of inadequate funds. BMA has expanded the purchase plan to Baht 700 million this year.

According to sources, only companies registered in the kingdom and having been in computer trading and computer network installing businesses for 5 years are qualified to bid under the new rule set by BMA. The companies, moreover, must be selling microcomputer or larger computer systems worth more than Baht 100 million to government agencies in the past years, they said.

Even world’s major computer giants recently entered into the Thai market do not meet the specification requirement; no local company qualified for the bid; company’s products must meet FCC and UL standards and holding ISO9000 certification, Y2K compatible.

US companies seeking communication license

More US-based companies in the communication industry have approached the Communications Authority of Thailand with proposals to connect the kingdom to their international services, mainly in overseas calls. The government’s "open-up plan" in the communications industry induced foreign firms to make haste to gain in the Thai market, said sources.

The Thai operations of US ExisTel and TeleMed in overseas card calls service have been among the latest comers to CAT. The two companies will charge phone callers while CAT charges for terminal usage, said sources. CAT, however, does not seem to be ready for the proposal as other US communication giants are already in the telephone business here with the phone monopoly.

CAT has connection agreements with several US phone operators which include MCI, AT&T, Sprint and TeleGlobe, under which parties share one half of revenues under the accounting rate system. A termination charge system has been very new to CAT, said sources.

International card phone service is one-way from abroad while CAT controls all the out calls from the kingdom; newcomers guarantied a 2-million minute call-traffic a year; special promotion benefits asked to help newcomers compete with industry giants.

Tour agents see a boom in short-trip services during the Asiad

Travel agents, especially the veteran Tourismo Thai, Deithelm, Siam Express and World Travel Service, owe a lot to the on-going Asian Games as half-day and one-day tour programs have been popular among foreign tourists coming for the Asiad.

The Samut Prakarn Crocodile Farms and Muang Boraan (Ancient City) in Samut Prakarn provinces have been among the most popular destinations for tourists. All the athletes, followers and group tours to the Games, as well as general tourists, have frequented the crocodile farm in huge numbers, said the Farm’s managing director Charoon Yangprapakarn.

Safari World in Minburi district, Sampran Rose Garden in Nakorn Chaisri are among attractions most favored by tourists, according to sources. Many of those short-time tourists have also chosen the Grand Palace, Vimarn Mek Throne and Wats (temples) in inner Bangkok as their most favored destinations.

Sightseeing services along Bangkok’s canals also see a boom; the historical Bridge of the River Kwai, ancient city of Ayutthaya among further destinations chosen by tourists; prices as low as Baht 530-930 offered in packages.

Four bankers rumored to leave their presidency in January

Besides Krung Thai Bank’s president Dr Sirin Nimmanahaeminda, whose resignation is to be effective from January 15, there would probably be three other top bankers to announce resignation from their posts, effective the same day, said a bank analyst.

It is a tradition that the "big boss" of a bank resign after changes in the bank’s holding, making very likely that at least three banks would soon announce major changes. Thai Military Bank, Siam Commercial Bank and Nakornthon Bank are reportedly prepared to seek Tier-1 and Tier-2 funds in the government’s assistance plan announced last August 14.

TMB’s president Dr Thanong Pittaya has told his close aides he would choose to be an advisor to the executive board rather than living with pressures of being on top of the government-owned bank.

Dr Olarn Chaiprawat is prepared for the changes in SCB, as he said to a group of reporters this week, "The party has to come to an end".

Nakornthon Bank’s boss Thamnu Wangli plans to bow to pressures as the bank seeks loans from Tier-1 program; talks with Canada’s Bank of Nova Scotia, the Standard Chartered Bank have failed to produce fruit; Japan’s Sunwa Bank has reportedly shunned Dr Olarn’s proposal in SCB’s capital increase plan.

Large corporations already fallen into foreign hands

Despite hot debates on the government’s 11 business bills, feared to spur foreign takeovers of Thai companies, the crisis has witnessed a number of large corporations already fallen into foreign hands in forms of major shareholders and true operators in the business.

ABN Amro Bank of the Netherlands, which owns 75 percent of the holding, has dominated the Bank of Asia, while Singapore’s UBS Bank controls 50 percent of Thai Dhanu Bank and the Siam Commercial Bank has offered a sell-off plan to Japan’s Sunwa and Long-term Credit Banks.

More foreign companies have been in advanced negotiations with Thailand’s cement producers after the Swiss Holderbank group spent Baht 6.3 billion buying about 30 percent of Thailand’s second largest cement producer Nakorn Luang Cement.

Cement Francaise has inked a Baht 915.2-million deal with Thailand’s Jalaprathan Cement last week, the deal which makes the French giant control 49 percent in JCC holding.

Communication industry poised to be next fall victim in the economic crisis; Nakorn Thai Strip Mill of NTS Steel Group in the hands of the US Steel Dynamic; Sukosol Mazda Co with uncertain future as Ford-Mazda set up new assembly line and distributing networks; Thai distributors have become dealers after foreign auto giants stepped in.

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Created by Andy Gombaz, assisted by Chinnaporn Sangwanlek.