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PTTEP increases stake
in Yetagun Gas Field
In a recent statement PTT Exploration & Production
Plc (PTTEP) said it has increased its stake in Myanmar’s Yetagun Gas Field
to 19.3 percent from 14.2 percent through its unit PTT International and
PTTEP Offshore Investment (PTTEPO). The unit bought a 5.2 percent stake from
Premier Oil Plc’s unit Premier Petroleum Myanmar for US$78 million. The
move follows the pull out of Premier Petroleum Myanmar, which owned a 26.7
percent stake.
The Yetagun field is located in the Gulf of Mataban and
covers 24,130sqkm. It produces approximately 300 million standard cubic feet
per day of natural gas and around 9,000 barrels a day of condensate. It also
operates a 277-kilometer gas pipeline from the Yetagun field to the
Thailand-Myanmar border. (TNA)
Thailand’s energy minister
announces plans for
becoming oil trading hub
The Associated Press
Energy Minister Prommin Lertsuridej recently announced
that efforts to make Thailand an oil trading hub for Asia will include
building an oil export processing zone and a one-stop trading center within
six months.
The center will be located on Si Chang Island in the Gulf
of Thailand off the coast of Chonburi province, 70 kilometers (45 miles)
southeast of Bangkok.
Last month, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra announced
that he wanted to make Thailand “the oil trading and energy center in the
region.”
In a related development, Vice Energy Minister Viset
Choopiban said the energy and transport ministries will study the location
of a planned “land bridge” in southern Thailand linking the Andaman Sea
and the Gulf of Thailand to minimize damage to the environment and to
tourism.
The “land bridge” will link oil terminals on either
side of the isthmus connecting Thailand to the Malayan peninsula with a
230-kilometer (140-mile) oil pipeline and an accompanying road and railway.
It will serve as an alternative to shipping through the Straits of Malacca.
Viset said plans for the initial route should be
completed within three months and construction should be completed about 20
months after the sites are obtained. Both projects are expected to help
reduce oil transport costs.
Facilities to be constructed for the project in eastern
Thailand include an oil terminal at Si Chang and a pipeline from the
terminal to refineries on the mainland’s Eastern Seaboard - an established
shipping and industrial center. Customs and tax regulations will be changed
to facilitate trading at the planned center.
Within the next five years, another pipeline will be
built connecting an oil terminal in central Thailand to a terminal in the
northern province of Lampang, from where oil can be trucked to southern
China and Vietnam, Prommin said.
Viset said oil companies from Japan, China, South Korea
and the Middle East, along with Thailand’s state oil conglomerate, have
expressed interest in investing in the southern land bridge.
The cost of constructing the pipelines and oil terminals
in the south was earlier estimated at US$719 million.
Small property developers still hurt for loans
According to Asian Property Plc (AP) vice-president
Phumipat Sinachareon, the county’s small and medium-sized property
developers say they still face problems getting credit from most local
commercial banks. “Developers know most of these banks prefer to loan to
big corporations and are hesitant to provide loans to small and medium-sized
entrepreneurs, especially those in the property sector, fearing they may be
stuck with more non-performing loans,” he said.
However, according to the Bank of Thailand (BOT,)
prospects for expansion in the property sector remain good.
BOT Domestic Economic Policy Department senior director
Atchana Waiquamdee said, “The value of land purchased during the first
half 2003 by property developers for their projects grew by 35.9 percent
from the same period last year to total 159.8 billion baht. Housing loans
extended by local commercial banks to homebuyers over the period grew by
11.7 percent. Furthermore, loans extended by the Thai banking industry
during the first half of 2003 grew by 2.3 percent from the same period a
year ago. (TNA)
Construction industry looks
set for continued growth
The construction industry will continue to grow until
next year with higher demand for houses, commercial and industrial
buildings, according to an industrial executive.
Preeprem Malasith, Director of the Steel and Iron
Institute of Thailand, said a survey jointly conducted by the institute and
Chulalongkorn University’s Engineering Faculty showed that investment in
the construction industry remained high. “The industry outlook is still
promising despite higher costs of transport and shortage of labor and
potential contractors,” he said.
Explaining the survey, Preeprem said, “The report
stated that at present, there are at least 8,000 producers and suppliers of
construction materials. The construction business represents 6% of the
country’s gross domestic product (GDP). This indicates the government
should give greater support to the business. Entrepreneurs in the industry
should also focus on cost management and pooling of production plan
information with each other.”
Preeprem said he did not believe a 10% rise in steel
product prices now would force property developers to increase housing
prices because it had only slightly affected the cost of housing
construction. (TNA)
Strict control of cosmetics imports may hurt local producers
The government’s recent move to impose strict controls
on cosmetics imports will affect local producers who are hired to make
products for Europe and the United States, according to an industry
executive.
Katmanee Lertkijja, President of the Thai Cosmetics
Producers’ Association explained that the import of cosmetics had been
normally made by two local groups.
“A small group imports them for direct sale in the
country; while the other, larger group imports raw materials from
entrepreneurs in the US and Europe for making cosmetics for export to the
Indochina. Foreign entrepreneurs chose Thailand as their production base
since Vietnam, Myanmar and Cambodia still have insufficient competence in
producing the product that meets the international standard,” Katmanee
said.
“The government needed to sort out what kind of
cosmetics and producers should be controlled in term of imports. Otherwise,
the measure would definitely have an impact on Thailand’s production and
distribution base,” Katmanee cautioned. (TNA)
GLO prepares to open lottery
sales to private sector
The Government Lottery Office (GLO) is preparing to take
the unprecedented step of opening up sales of lottery tickets to the private
sector, according to GLO Director-General Chaiwat Pasokpackdee. Chaiwat said
that the GLO proposed to the House Lottery Committee that private companies
be allowed to sell two and three digit lottery tickets.
The government has recently taken over the sale of two
and three digit tickets in an attempt to crack down on the underground
lottery. Chaiwat said that he would propose that each company be allowed to
sell online lottery tickets in one location and request that the maximum
sales volume be increased from 500,000 baht to 1 million baht. (TNA)
MOC rebuffs US accusations of prawn dumping
The Ministry of Commerce has denied accusations of
dumping prawns on the United States market, saying that Thailand would join
forces with 16 prawn-exporting nations to seek clarity on the issue from the
US government.
Karun Kittisathaporn, permanent secretary for commerce,
said that clear signals were emerging from eight US states that they were
preparing to request that Thailand’s prawn exporters be subject to
anti-dumping measures. Conceding that the issue was not a new one, he said
that Thailand would have to see what action the US Commerce Ministry would
take before deciding how to respond. He said the Ministry of Commerce had
sent a letter to US trade representatives and high-ranking officials from
the US Commerce Ministry to explain that prawns imported from Thailand were
not being dumped on the market.
Karun said, “In the near future all 17 countries
subjected to similar accusations will meet to discuss the issue and make
their position known to the US government, since the enforcement of
anti-dumping measures could have an impact on domestic consumption as the
price of prawns would rise.” (TNA)
Forming clubs could cut costs
for overseas Thai restaurants
Thai trade representative, Gornpot Asavinvichit, who was
former deputy commerce minister, recently suggested that Thai restaurants
operating overseas should consider joining forces and form clubs in the
countries in which they operate. The idea is to cooperate in purchasing or
importing raw materials, which could reduce their costs.
Gornpot added that the proposed Thai restaurants clubs
could also act as guarantors for their individual members seeking support
from financial institutes.
“Foreign branches of Bangkok Bank have said they would
be willing to join hands with Small and Medium Enterprise Development Bank
of Thailand to render financial support for Thai restaurants overseas, and
to allow Thai restaurants clubs to be guarantors of the loans”, Gornpot
said, adding that this would also help support the government’s policy on
promoting the kingdom as a ‘world kitchen’. (TNA)
Car sales up 30% in first 8 months
Domestic car sales have hit a record high this year, with
growth of over 30 percent during the first eight months alone, fuelled by a
massive 43 percent increase in sales of saloon cars.
Wutthikorn Suriyachantananon, assistant general manager
of Toyota Motors Thailand, trumpeted statistics showing that over 334,422
cars had been shifted over the first eight months of 2003, up 32.8 percent
on the same period last year.
The highest rate of growth was recorded in the saloon car
market, with sales up 43.2 percent to hit 114,51 vehicles, while the market
for commercial vehicles grew by a more modest 28.0 percent to reach 219,671
vehicles, with this latter segment including a 30.7 percent rise in sales of
1-ton pick-up trucks.
August saw car sales exceed 40,000 for the fifth month
running, although the growth rate was only 18.7 percent compared to the same
period in 2002. (TNA)
Philips to launch range of plasma TVs
Philips Electronics (Thailand) plans to regain its top
place in the local consumer electronics market by launching the whole range
of its pixel-plus plasma television sets.
Philips’ general manager of consumer electronics
division Chadil Chulinrak said, “We will introduce 10 new products by the
end of this year, including the “pixel plus” color television at a price
of 70,000 baht, and a 55-inch projection TV and HDTV (high definition TV)
monitor worth 169,000 baht.”
Chadil added that the firm’s consumer electronics
division is expected to achieve 10-15 percent sales growth this year.
The company started its sale in middle-end and low-end
product this September and it hopes to achieve about 500 million baht
revenue from this segment within the next year.
“We also plan to introduce a mobile phone product which
will support the 3G technology and also launch information technology
products soon,” Chadil said. (TNA)
Thai prime minister expects
8 percent economic growth next year
The Associated Press
Thailand’s economy should expand by 8 percent in 2004,
a sharp jump from the 6 percent growth expected this year, Prime Minister
Thaksin Shinawatra said on Monday, September 15th. Thaksin’s upbeat
forecast follows a series of bullish revisions for this year’s growth in
gross domestic product as quarterly economic statistics have been rosier
than expected.
“We grew 6.2 percent in the first half of the year and
we won’t have any problem to get around 6 percent in the second half,”
Thaksin said. “This will bring economic growth for the whole year to over
6 percent.” He expects the growth momentum to carry into 2004.
“We will make it 8 percent next year,” Thaksin said.
GDP grew a higher-than-expected 5.8 percent year-on-year
in the second quarter of 2003 as rising private investment and strong
exports offset declining tourism revenue and a slight slowdown in consumer
demand due to the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, the
National Economic and Social Development Board announced earlier Monday.
NESDB, Thailand’s state planning body, raised its 2003
GDP growth forecast to 5.8 percent to 6.2 percent - from 4.5 percent to 5.5
percent previously - citing stronger-than-forecast growth of 6.2 percent in
the first half of the year. Economists had projected full-year growth of 5.7
percent.
NESDB also expressed some concerns for next year with
regard to U.S. economic growth and the possible revaluation of the Chinese
yuan. But Thaksin said the Thai economy is largely driven by domestic
factors, so external elements shouldn’t significantly obstruct growth.
“We have a dual-track policy and we already rely a lot on ourselves,” he
said.
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