THAILAND——“DETROIT IN SOUTH EAST ASIA”

Today, the coastal regions in East Bangkok is regarded as “Detroit in South East Asia”. “The City of Automobiles” Detroit has once been the headquarter of many large automotive groups in America such as GM, Ford and Chrysler. Each year, more than 2,000,000 automobiles are manufactured from the regional production line, making Thailand the 12th largest automotive manufacturer in the world. Meanwhile, Thailand is also the 5th largest manufacturer of two-wheelers, with the annual production of around 3,000,000. Each mega brand of the automotive industry can be found in Thailand: Toyota, Honda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, GM, Mazda, Ford, BMW, Benz and also the motorcycle brands such as Ducati, Triumph, Honda, BMV, Kawasaki, Suzuki and Yamaha. In Thailand, the entire industry today has more than 2400 enterprises providing a gainful employment of more than 500,000 people. Over time, the production line has expanded from the components to the finished goods, leading to the consolidation of more than 2400 manufacturers, subcontractors and OEMs. As the first French enterprise presenting in Thailand, Michelin has employed more than 7000 people and established no less than 6 factories to produce extra wheels other than the new equipment tires for the passenger cars, as well as tires for the trucks and airplanes. In addition, Michelin also produced molds, cables, natural rubber mixing products and so on. The German enterprise Bosch has also employed more than 1000 people and built up two factories, with the third recently being built up in Thailand, where the other large scale enterprises like Delphi, Faurecia, Goodyear, DuPont and Valeo also have their own production bases.