US$500 million Mazda-Ford plant in Thailand
We might just be getting the next generation CBU Mazda 6 from Thailand instead of Japan, once Mazda and Ford’s second plant in Thailand goes online in 2009.
The US$500 million plant is a 50:50 joint investment between Mazda and Ford and it will build cars from the B and C-D segment. It will be built on the same site as the existing pick-up truck plant, which is currently pushing out 175,000 trucks a year.
Cars from this plant will be sold in Thailand and exported to other countries in Asia, Australasia and Africa. B and C-D segment cars will mean the Mazda 2, Mazda 3, Mazda 6, Ford Focus, and many other cars.
This is the largest foreign investment in Thailand ever since last autumn’s army coup – this shows investors still have much confidence in Thailand.
October 10, 2007 @ 2:20 am
will there be a reduced price because of this move or since Jap-Malaysia has some sort of trade agreement, the price would remain the same?
October 10, 2007 @ 5:18 am
because of our stupid G, we push investors to our competitors, to protect our f**k proton.
October 10, 2007 @ 6:59 am
It is not they have faith and trust with the Thailand G. Instead, they are not believe the NAP in Malaysia. Right.
October 10, 2007 @ 8:06 am
azrai, you are likely right!
October 10, 2007 @ 8:09 am
Good point we can see is how our G “whack” Geely investment plan in Malaysia, that eventually they decided to shift it to Indonesia!
Yeah, we are protecting “one dead wood stump but ignoring mountaineous green forest”!
October 10, 2007 @ 8:10 am
what it is got to do with NAP when even Panasonic and many other Japanese industries are moving away from Malaysia to Thailand?
what a cheap shot just because we don’t get what we want that is cheaper car pricing…
October 10, 2007 @ 8:29 am
Sigh!..
What a lucky tomyamland..
October 10, 2007 @ 8:52 am
Another FDI just miss us…bad, really really bad…
October 10, 2007 @ 8:52 am
Another FDI just missed us…bad, really really bad…
October 10, 2007 @ 8:55 am
Right….
Of course it has to to do with NAP.
Without turning this into a political forum, it has also a big factor to do with NEP as well. Go ahead, dig us all malaysians a big grave. I wish malaysians as a whole will wake up and see what is going on. I emplore even our fellow melayu citizens to see that.
Protectinism policies will never work in a free market. Industries will just go somewhere that is less restrictive (we are not even talking about “cheap” yet)
October 10, 2007 @ 9:28 am
Since when did us Malaysian like Mazda or Ford passenger cars? It stopped with the old TX3 I guess. Would any investor want to invest in such a big way in a market that’s not their’s? Duh!
We don’t need American money. Go read ‘Confessions of an Economic Hit Man’ by John Perkins and you’ll know what I mean.
October 10, 2007 @ 9:32 am
So does this spell the end of the road for Ford CKD operations in Malaysia? There’s only Ranger right? Focus is from the Phillipines.
October 10, 2007 @ 10:18 am
We should not jump to conclusions as to why Ford and Mazda decided on Thailand. An investor invests due to many reasons and I believe the NAP is only one of them. Honda has a huge plant in Pagoh, and Toyota is a strong partner of Perodua. VW is considering the Proton deal.
Of course, had we not have the “closed door” policy our auto industry would be bigger, but then some still would have gone to Thailand. The problem is that ASEAN is too weak as an economic entity, and most of it’s policies are carried out half heartedly by all members. This is due to vested interests of individual nations, and the opportunistic attitude of politicians.
October 10, 2007 @ 10:30 am
“It will be built on the same site as the existing pick-up truck plant, which is currently pushing out 175,000 trucks a year. ”
this is a possible hint to why they are in thailand. with an existing plant already pushing out such a large volume of trucks, i think it makes sense for ford/mazda to build their new plant there. with the existing vendor community there already supplying that amount of volume to their truck business, their emerging car assembly operations will also benefit from this. but all this is only speculation on my part.
as longjaafar said, its no point jumping to conclusions when we have no idea exactly what the deal is in terms of details. the easy way out of course is to always blame the obvious.
October 10, 2007 @ 11:24 am
Here we go… Tom yam land again… Naa.. Panasonic and a lot of Japaneses electronic companies are moving not to Thailand only.. They are moving to china, Vietnam & Thailand coz their man power is cheap. Their G policies are more better compare to us from having to give that tax, this tax, rasuah a bit here and there… So if u r the boss, i think if got a better place than here why not? After all the G in here tot helping only for bumiputra’s company which until now still hoping for G financial help..(NEP issue) How many local bumiputra’s companies did until worldwide except Petronas, Mas, Proton which is own by G? Well in reality, the companies which is own by the G cronies will only be rich and famous in Malaysia… The rest, dream on… Still some ppl still think the current G is good… tiap-tiap tahun B = Barang N = Naik!
October 10, 2007 @ 11:43 am
littlefire
you might want to know petronas is a lousy preforming company. and survives by strongarming other multinasional coporations and local small companies as well. make others do the work, they just sit back and count beans.
petronas is not a good company in my books. more like a monopoly. same way like mas and proton. only difference is that mas and proton are slightly affected by market forces. just slightly.
i didnt know petronas is a bumiputra company.
prices rising is normal. but rising too rapidly isnt. i also cant beleive we lost out on these multimillion dollar deals to thailand, indo and phillipines. F^^K
October 10, 2007 @ 1:05 pm
y not m’sia ?
October 10, 2007 @ 1:46 pm
so we are going to have a pay for a lot of a money for a cbu car made in thailand, shit, this country is shit, portect stupid proton
October 10, 2007 @ 2:04 pm
JULIANLEE2 shaddap man…
pathetic comments..
October 10, 2007 @ 2:16 pm
-dotn worry lah kawan , they go to thailand because sxx industry there is very good,
if you want they come here , ask our G to open more bumbum club, agogo girl , nana plaza laa.. then in future our children can work there profesionally also
-got something ,lost something…so think about it..
-we still can survive here….dont worry…NAP also will slowly die…its about time…p1 also put some improvement (even not very good as honda yet). for the mean time relek and read paultan blog. ther alot of frequent commenter here, and they give alot of idea to us.
-last time we win when panasonic come here, now we lost when panasonic go there,…. that life.. accept it ….
-Geely shift to Indonesie? hehe, look what happen to astro investment at indonesia. wait n see.
-good thing from this news was.. ASEAN is still good choise and still ahve good enocomic growth.thank god
October 10, 2007 @ 3:44 pm
Why not Malaysia? (1) Better Incentive (2) Clear Policy (3) No national company protection (4) “open skirt” …
October 10, 2007 @ 3:55 pm
Think about it dudes,
Why would a major auto carmaker opens up (or rather does an extension to) a factory in Thailand while closes down one plant in Ohio and deliberately stalls production in Kentucky. Cuts manpower by 27,000 and reduces costs in a declining market while transfering those equipment to Thailand. US$500 million doesn’t necessarily mean that the investment is in 100% cash.
Read between the lines dudes
October 10, 2007 @ 3:56 pm
topgunthang.. are you sure about your statement ah? “proton are slightly affected by market forces.” i think proton are greatly affected by market forces, and they are definitely not even close to the protectionism they used to have in the past.
didnt you notice the huge losses over the last year, as well as the drop in market share? If they were a still protected, and slightly affected by market forces as many here continue to claim, those things wouldnt have happened. But credit to them, it would seem that they are now starting to pull themselves out of it already by themselves without any outside help.
October 10, 2007 @ 5:22 pm
JULIANLEE2 said,
October 10, 2007 @ 1:46 pm
so we are going to have a pay for a lot of a money for a cbu car made in thailand,————————————————–
yes…good for you..
October 11, 2007 @ 12:08 am
BanyakMasukWorkshop
in my opinion, when i say slightly i mean they will always have protection. the people holding off buying protons these 5-10 years mainly have iswaras or wiras that are ageing and cannot hold off anymore. i know alot of people are in this boat. the repair costs are too much to handle.
so therefore the only economic choice for the short term (and maybe long term) again is proton (in malaysia). therefore u see alot of people buying the new persona. fresh graduates who need a transport will also need a new car. its all just a waiting game. proton can wait for 10 years. consumers cant.
October 11, 2007 @ 12:13 am
Nothing to shout about.. The Ford n Mazda from Thailand CBU won’t reduce the price much when it come to M’sia. See our Toyota’s CBU from Thailand..the car is overpriced, and the quality is sucked.
So..don’t expect great stuffs from Thailand’s Ford n Mazda, quality control will sure drop..
Still prefer the CBU from Japan and the prices are well match with those thailand’s CBU n CKD..
October 11, 2007 @ 12:21 am
besides if proton is not protected, then why would VW go through so much trouble. Might as well skip the whole fiasco and just build a plant from scratch like everyone else does elsewhere. therefore by passing proton management and cronies and shoddy suppliers.
toyota would do the same. mazda/ford would do the same. mitsu would do the same. honda. GM. there is a reason why they didnt build thier plants here and would rather take a bigger risk going to less stable countries around malaysia
October 11, 2007 @ 1:51 pm
Sigh… there goes another potential few thousand jobs. Good work, G.
Some countries may seem unstable politically but that doesn’t mean they will affect business in a big way. So long as their economic policies don’t fluctuate too much, they will attract foreign investors. Our wonderful G has proven time and time again to be extremely unstable in deciding on economic policies and for large manufacturers, this is the highest risk factor. One year, say foreign company can own majority. Next year, say local must be more than 50%. Following year, proof that they employ more than 30% bumi. What next? Excellent Finance Ministry we have… at keeping investors away.
Of course some can never see the big picture and think along a narrow track. We might not face the issues now but our children will.
October 11, 2007 @ 2:47 pm
The one that govern the country never get hurts, they got big houses, drive big cars, tons of money, eat and sleep like kings.
You all bodoh fella who elect them continue to beg for food lah….
October 11, 2007 @ 6:12 pm
topgunthang said,
October 11, 2007 @ 12:21 am
besides if proton is not protected, then why would VW go through so much trouble. Might as well skip the whole fiasco and just build a plant from scratch like everyone else does elsewhere. therefore by passing proton management and cronies and shoddy suppliers.
—————————–
Build a new plant = 24 months
Employ and train workers = 6 months?
Take over existing plant = 12 months
Retrain experienced workers = 3 months.
Which path would you take? Besides, if they want to build a new plant, they wouldn’t do it in Malaysia.
October 11, 2007 @ 10:25 pm
Build a new plant = 24 months
Employ and train workers = 6 months?
———
Talk more than 24 months and negotiate for many round, still talk only & waiting!
October 12, 2007 @ 10:04 am
Oh please, they just want the plant and infrastructure, but not the ‘experienced’ workers….if possible, they will do a cleaning job on the management and suppliers ….
October 16, 2007 @ 10:03 am
This is a clear example of our pathetic economic system.
The government should just close down Proton. Offer the workers and the plant to Mazda-Ford. As expected, the workers will be deemed unproductive and incompetent, due to Proton’s management. However, with the assistance of Mazda-Proton, the workers will eventually be as capable as their ‘Thai’ counterparts. (Due to attitude differentiation, it’s quite hard for an average Malaysian worker to surpass the productivity level expected of our neighbours)
Am I not right on this point?