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Bombardier To Maintain Services For Bangkok Mass Transit System

Bombardier To Maintain Services For Bangkok Mass Transit System

Bombardier Transportation has announced that the Bangkok Mass Transit System Public Co. Ltd. (BTSC) is the previously undisclosed customer that signed a contract for 20 years of maintenance services. The services will be provided for the BOMBARDIER INNOVIA monorail 300 systems in delivery for Thailand’s first two monorail lines: the Bangkok pink and yellow lines. This order is valued at approximately 245 million euros ($287 million US).

Commenting on the order, Khun Keeree Kanjanapas, Chairman of the Board of Directors, BTSC stated, “Our focus is to ensure the highest levels of passenger safety, comfort and performance and this agreement ensures we will strengthen system performance by drawing on Bombardier’s expertise to provide full continuity between delivery and maintenance of our new iconic system.”

Gregory Enjalbert, Managing Director Thailand, Bombardier Transportation, added, “This first long-term services contract for our INNOVIA monorail 300 system reflects the benefit we can bring to our customers throughout the full life-cycle of our systems, ensuring highest reliability and availability for the equipment maintained. We are very pleased to continue our over a decade-long partnership with BTSC and to continue to contribute to Bangkok’s urban development.”

This latest contract will see Bombardier maintain the monorail trains in Bangkok that comprise of 288-cars, as well as the system’s guideway switches and depot equipment. In 2017, Bombardier signed the contracts to deliver its full turnkey INNOVIA monorail 300 systems for Bangkok’s Khae Rai to MinBuri (pink) line and Lat Phrao to Samrong (yellow) line.

Bombardier is one of the few mobility solution providers to deliver projects from Thailand for Thailand, including its rail control solutions for Bangkok’s mass transit lines. Since 1997, Bombardier has continued to grow its Bangkok team to over 620 highly-skilled engineers and employees, providing full life-cycle rail system support for customers across Asia Pacific.

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US-China Trade War Pushes Manufacturing To Southeast Asia

US-China Trade War Pushes Manufacturing To Southeast Asia

MANILA – Increasing tension between the USA and China has caused a diversion of manufacturing activities from China to Southeast Asia due to rising labour costs, tariffs and political instability.

In accordance to the manufacturing production index from the Japan Center for Economic Research, five key Southeast Asian countries (Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore) have a recorded 4.5 percent increase in manufacturing for 2017 while China experienced a corresponding 15.7 percent decrease. Similarly, for the first half of 2018, the Philippines’ experienced a 13.8 percent rise in its manufacturing production index due to infrastructural initiatives from President, Rodrigo Duterte’s government. A trend that was also replicated by the 4 to 5 percent rise in manufacturing by Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand due to increased GDPs, exports and infrastructural growth.

Under newly developed China-plus-one strategies, manufacturers have been looking to tap onto manufacturing facilities in Southeast Asia before exporting to China to circumvent tariffs and increasing Chinese labour costs induced by the Trade War. A strategy that German automaker, BMW, has deployed by building some of its models in Thailand, an automotive industry hub, before exporting to China. Taiwanese power components supplier Delta Electronics also plans to re-divert its key production bases in China to Thailand by converting its Thai affiliate, Delta Electronics (Thailand), into a subsidiary while contract electronics maker, New Kinpo Group, is looking to build new facilities in the Philippines as it shifts its focus away from China. A sentiment that is shared by the group’s CEO, Simon Shen, as the company eyes a further expansion in Thailand and Malaysia due to increasing demands from clients who are looking towards Southeast Asia as a manufacturing base.

This could signal a continued downward trend in China’s lead in real GDP growth although Makoto Saito, an economist at the NLI Research Institute in Japan has said “If the U.S. economic cycle enters a downward phase in 2019, Southeast Asia could face a slowdown as well”.

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Bombardier To Focus Investments On Asian Infrastructure

Bombardier To Focus Investments On Asian Infrastructure

BANGKOK: Bombardier, Thailand’s second largest train provider, will be expanding its infrastructure investments in Asia, building upon its existing 28 offices and production sites established across the region. Laurent Troger, president of Bombardier Transportation, has said: “We will maintain our market share among the top three in the ASEAN market by providing more technology, innovativeness, service, and also customise our products to serve demand in this region”.

In particular, APAC’s urban mass transit and advanced railway networks have been identified as key areas of interest and this is evidenced by the company’s increasing supply of metro cars, trains and mainline systems across Asian cities such as Shanghai, Manila, Thailand and Singapore. Furthermore through the establishment of state partnerships with the State Railway of Thailand (SRT), Bombardier has been able to rapidly develop infrastructural projects such as the re-signaling of the full BTS Skytrain route and the implementation of its CITYFLO 450 communications-based train control (CBTC) solution. Currently, the company has also signed a prolific agreement with BTS Group to build two monorail systems worth more than Bt20 billion in Thailand and was awarded multiple contracts by the Singapore government to upgrade existing rail networks, provide auxiliary support and metro cars.

As of the end of 2017, Bombardier Transport has reported a total revenue of US$8.5 billion. This accounts for more than half of the total reported earnings of US$16.2 billion by Bombardier Group and is expected to increase exponentially due to the company’s rapid expansion plans in Bangkok, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia. All of which comprise significant and fast growth markets within APAC which holistically represents a dynamic growth of 2.5 percent, as reported by the the UNIFE 2010 market study.

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Hitachi Launches Southeast Asian Lumada Center In Thailand

Hitachi Launches Southeast Asian Lumada Center In Thailand

THAILAND: In lieu of the current demands of “Thailand 4.0”, Hitachi has established a Southeast Asian Lumada Centre in the Amata City Chonburi Industrial Estate in Chonburi, Thailand.

The centre’s new IoT platform, also known as ‘Lumada’, would not only offer solutions for customers in Thailand but also support growth in the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) by integrating successful solutions from Asian countries such as Japan and China as well as the United States of America. Similarly, in order to offer customised business solutions, Lumada would also be connecting and analysing customers’ data and engaging in co-creative opportunities with partners in the areas of digital technologies such as big data analytics, artificial intelligence (AI) and information and communication technology (ICT).

Further reinforcing Hitachi’s commitment towards supporting Thailand’s push for a digital economy, Toshiaki Higashihara, president & CEO of Hitachi, Ltd., has said: “Hitachi regards Thailand as an important market – the country represents the largest share of our business operations across the ASEAN market. We are proud to launch Lumada Center Southeast Asia, as part of our efforts to support Thailand’s vision to create a sustainable, value-based economy that is driven by innovation, technology and creativity”.

Looking into the future, Hitachi aims to utilise Lumada’s Operational Technology and Information Technology to achieve optimal results in manufacturing processes and seeks to implement business analysis and service ideation, to create viable business solutions in countries across ASEAN.

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Manufacturing Expo 2018: SMEs Encouraged To Adopt Robotics And Automation

Manufacturing Expo 2018: SMEs Encouraged To Adopt Robotics And Automation

Bangkok, Thailand: Manufacturing Expo 2018 was organised by the Office of Industrial Economics (OIE) in collaboration with public and private agencies, to support SMEs and to spur the robotics and automation industries.

This exposition was held to boost awareness of the importance of automation in production processes. It serves to encourage its adoption among SMEs in line with the Thai government’s One Factory, One Robot policy.

Dr Nattapol Rangsitpol, Director-General of the Thai Industrial Standards Institute and OIE Acting Director-General; Djitt Laowattana, associate professor and member of the robotics cluster committee; Somwang Boonrakcharoen, Director of the Thai–German Institute; and Dr Prapin Apinaraset, President of the Thai Automation and Robotics Association (TARA), where among the exposition’s attendees.

The guests spoke of the Robotics Cluster Pavilion project—including measures to help SMEs integrate robotics and automation into their operations to enhance production efficiency. In order to further technology adoption, a 30 percent tax exemption for three years for machinery importers was announced by the Board of Investment.

Manufacturing Expo 2018 was held from 20-23 June 2018.

Thailand Sees Strongest GDP Growth In Years

Thailand Sees Strongest GDP Growth In Years

Thailand: With a strong performance from the manufacturing sector, Thailand’s real gross domestic product (GDP) expanded 4.3 percent year-on-year in the third quarter of 2017. The manufacturing industry contributed 1.22 percentage points, which offset weakness in the country’s construction industry. Higher expenditure figures boosted real GDP due to an increase in inventories.

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Rolling Along Smoothly: Thailand’s Path For Economic Growth

Rolling Along Smoothly: Thailand’s Path For Economic Growth

Not content with being the world’s 13th largest automotive producer, Thailand’s development of Special Economic Zones set in motion its ambitions to transform into a knowledge-based economy. By Jonathan Chou

The second-largest economy in ASEAN after Indonesia, Thailand’s economy is expected to grow 3.2 percent in 2017 according to the 2016 Thailand Economic Monitor released by the World Bank. The country has numerous free trade agreements, including those with in ASEAN, Australia, New Zealand, China, Korea and Japan.

According to the Thailand Board of Investment (BOI), foreign investments totalling US$4.3 billion were approved in the first seven months of 2016. Japan was the largest foreign direct investment (FDI) source, followed by China, Australia, Singapore and Indonesia.

An Export Hub

The country has active industrial sectors that are dependent on the machinery and metalworking industries to meet growing demand. Subsequently, machinery and parts are one of the country’s largest import categories, ranking second in terms of highest import value, according to the Thai Ministry of Commerce.

Due to ongoing regional economic expansion, Thailand is also a growing export hub for machinery and parts in Southeast Asia, with exports increasing over 200 percent since 2004, according to the BOI. The country’s top export in 2016 was automotive parts and accessories, while machinery and parts were in sixth place, followed by iron, steel and products in tenth.

Rolling Along

The automotive manufacturing industry is a robust sector in Thailand. Being the world’s 13th largest automotive manufacturer in the world, the country is Southeast Asia’s largest vehicle producer and the world’s largest manufacturer of one-ton pickup trucks, according to the Royal Thai Embassy to Washington, USA.

Thai-made vehicles are produced and licensed by Japanese, European and American automotive producers, such as Toyota, Honda, BMW, Ford and General Motors. In fact , Japanese Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) have an 85 percent market share while the remaining 15 percent goes to European and American OEMs, according to a report by ASEAN Briefing.

Thailand’s automotive cluster has around 700 Tier 1 companies and 1,700 Tier 2 and 3 companies, employing over 500,000 (almost 80 percent) of the country’s total automotive workforce.

While a sizeable portion of vehicles are for domestic sales, the majority are exported throughout the region through the ASEAN Free Trade Area agreement. A total of 178,798 vehicles were produced in March this year, of which 84,801 were sold domestically. The remaining were then exported, according to the Thai Automotive Industry Association.

With almost 85 percent of assembled parts and components in the country produced domestically, machinery and metalworking needed to support automotive manufacturing in Thailand are seeing strong demand.

Looking Skywards

Thailand’s construction market is also seeing growth. In 2015, the sector grew by 15.8 percent, a significant improvement over 0.1 percent in 2013 and 3.7 percent in 2014, and the industry contributed 2.8 percent to the country’s GDP, according to research firm Oxford Business Group.

The industry reached US$41.4 billion in 2016 with about US$17.9 billion coming from private investments and US$23.4 billion from the public sector, including infrastructure, according to Solidiance. The consulting firm also elaborated on current trends and the future outlook in Thailand’s construction sector:

  • Residential market shift

With public transportation lines under construction, the city centre is gradually expanding to different vicinities outside of Bangkok. Residential condominiums are seeing especially strong growth.

  • Regional shopping hub

The growth of commercial building market is driven by a higher demand for shopping malls to accommodate the rising amount of tourists from China and ASEAN. Thai shopping mall developers plan to invest more than US$2.83 billion over the next three years to expand and open new stores.

  • New industrial zones for growth

Industrial construction developments are mostly observed in Special Economic Zones, where high value-added industries (such as aviation, robotics and medical) are given BOI privileges and incentive schemes.

The Thai government has also approved the development of the Eastern Economic Corridor, a five-year plan which concentrates on construction of transport infrastructure, sea, and rail. This move is aimed to position Thailand as a major economic zone in the region.

Thailand 4.0

While its industrial sectors are continuing to grow, the country is aiming to make a transition to a knowledge-based economy by announcing “Thailand 4.0”.

The first three economic models were focussed on agriculture, light industry and heavy industry respectively for growth. Thai Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha said that the fourth economic model would aim to develop the country as a knowledge-based economy, with an emphasis on research and development, science and technology, creative thinking, and innovation.

He added that “Thailand 4.0” will also focus on sustainable economic growth and development with emphasis on protecting the environment.

Super Clusters

Efforts to move the country into the new economic model can be seen with the launch of the 2015-2021 Investment Promotion Strategy by the BOI.

The aim of this initiative is to promote high value-added industries, investment clusters, development in the southern provinces, and establish Special Economic Zones in border areas.

Priority is given to investments in high-tech and creative industries, service industries that support the development of a digital economy and industries that utilise local resources. Under the new strategy, tax incentives and non-tax incentives (such as guarantees or protection measures) are granted to investors who fit the relevant criteria.

Prime Positioning

As part of the economically developing Southeast Asian region and close proximity to emerging global economic powers (China and India), Thailand’s export-focussed automotive sector and developments in the SEZs and East Economic Corridor show signs of growing demand for machinery and metalworking.

The government’s focus to develop its country’s high value-added industries could also mean a higher demand for more sophisticated machinery in future.

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