Tan Chong Motor Holdings has opened its first international assembly plant, and it’s located in Vietnam. The TCIE Vietnam facility, located in Hoa Khanh Industrial Park in Da Nang City’s Lien Chieu district, was officially launched on June 11, and kicks things off with the assembly of the Nissan Sunny (the Almera) for the domestic market.
The launch of the 129,500 sq ft factory comes just under three years after the groundbreaking ceremony took place. Built at a cost of US$40 million, the plant has the capacity to assemble a total of 6,500 cars annually, according to reports.
A source tells us that the current assembly rate is about three cars a day and comes up to around 1,000 units a year, with production targeted mainly for the Indochina region, though it’s currently only for the domestic market. Meanwhile, the reports add that the retail price of the Vietnamese-market Nissan Sunny will be announced in Hanoi next week, on June 17.
A number of automakers have set up – or are in the process of setting up – local assembly facilities in Vietnam, and these include Mazda, Suzuki and Chery.
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So Vietnam economy will better Malaysia in 3 years?
Perhaps not in 3 years or a decade. But there is certainly big potential in that market.
There are a lot of Malaysian firms investing in Vietnam and Cambodia now as is our holding group.
The government can pull whatever numbers out of its hat but the truth is, it will be difficult to sustain even the 5% growth given where the country is going. FDI stagnated, CPI is going up, lack of capable human resource and most urban malaysians are feeling the pinch.
The thing is not to reserve the pie only for certain people…but to make the pie bigger.
Vietnam economy still slow moving but progressing. But our country cost of living and national debts progress upward at much faster pace compare to economy growth!
omg can they post d other Nissan cars? Those Almera i mean umbrella r so damn ugly and cheap!
That is the only model, which most of the Malaysian and Probably Vietnamese can afford.
vietnam… land of hot chicks
IKR ?!? Vietnamese girls > Korean girls. The Vietnamese chicks not made of plastic, they’re just Plain Jane-ly beautiful. :D
Totally agreed! Vietnam is “SLIM-land” in 4 aspects!
1) Long narrow slim road networks, especially HCMC!
2) Slim house with narrow standard 4 M width but length can be up to 30 M.
3) Slim country with narrowest at around 50 Km and more than 2,400 km long.
4) Lastly, slim body beautiful Vietnamese girls.
i guess the malaysian market doesn’t have a bright future..can’t blame them for looking somewhere else..
Why Najib did not talk tan Chong to do it in Malaysia?
There is/are already TCM plant(s) operating in Malaysia.
By opening a new plant in Vietnam, TCM can funnel some capital (profit) into Malaysia. Most will still go to Nissan in Japan, but Malaysia will get a fair share of the pie too. It is a smart business move all-in-all.
is there a typo? 6,500 cars assembled annually is quite…low
In Vietnam, cars are a luxury. Most people own kapcais. Car sales are very, very low. 6,500 is an appropriate number. If in doubt, Google ‘BestSellingCarsBlog’ and click on Vietnam.
Cheers.
Congrat TCM……i think 6500 is right figure coz it juz for domestic market oni….cheers…
agreed. i think tentatively this plant is to cater for their overseas market(vietnam, laos and myanmar). definitely ETCM would be expanding further. with all the new models that they would be planning to launch,i think ETCM is on the right track..
Good job TCM, not bad at all.
Although I must add, Proton opened a plant in Vietnam in the 90s, they only made the Wira there in Left Hand Drive. They closed down after AFC (No, not the Asian Food Channel, the Asian Financial Crisis ! ) 1997. :(
Can still see some Proton Wira in Vietnam today though.
Cheers.
Good move by TCM, but VN market is still very small for Nissan. Just like Thai and Indon, Vietnam is Toyota-land!!!!
Toyota 55% market share for passenger cars in VN.
Anyway TCM’s investment is reaaaaally long term. Installed capacity in VN is already 3 or 4 times the size of the market. In 2012 the passenger car market went down -35% around 40’000 units, after 2010-2011 peak years at 55 and 62’000 units.
6’500 units a year would give Nissan more than 10% market share, and position number 3 behind very agressive Kia-Truong Hai, and in front of GM or Ford manufacturer subsidiaries which have been in VN for 15+ years.
After struggling 2 years will locally assembled Grand Livina, it won’t be an easy task. 313 units sold in 2012 !!
Profit might come from Infiniti which they are also bringing in VN anytime soon.
2013 is slowly recovering, but people’s income not growing fast enough. Most of those who can afford a car, have one ! In 2012 even the motorbike market went slightly down after 2011 peak. Now the motorbike manufacturers fear overcapacity. But in that case the size of the market is 3’000’000 units a year !
Tan Chong invest there because their boss have a concubine there? Hahaha
Btw, this is another sign of potential investor going other country rather than in Malaysia. Maybe another few years, Tan Chong may move their whole plant to there and migrate there too.
Tan Chong Boss open shop in Vietnam, so that he has a reason to tell his wife why he is always visiting the country for business. It’s that simple, not because of politic, business or any sort of company expansion.
tan chong is known for its aggressive style marketing. they know that selling the car cheaper than its competitors will not sustain in the long run. so they expand overseas to improve the profit. to sell the car cheaper, they need to get the volume. so they expand overseas to improve the profit margin. smart move!
Why Tan Chong invest in Vietnam rather than more investment in Malaysia? It depends on how our current Goverment treat TC.Look at the cars Nissan offered here and the spec. compare with globally which I believe its lousy.I suspect these got something to do with our policies since TC is not a GLC compare with most brands of cars offered here.
Where is New Sylphy….Tan Chong???