Thailand’s AAPICO Hitech plans India foray, in talks with forging companies

Wuhan, China, October 18, 2013: Thailand-based automotive component giant, AAPICO Hitech PLC is planning to enter the Indian market.

The $ 500 million (turnover of all subsidiaries, excluding the associate companies) company operates in a wide area ranging from manufacturing fuel tanks (for Mazda, Ford and others globally), fuel lines, brake lines, engine components, brazed steel tubes, chassis frames, forging and machining parts, metal stamping parts, plastic parts and other components to designing and manufacturing assembly jigs, assembly dies and is also present in the car dealership space in Thailand. The group has 30 companies (21 based in its home country and 9 overseas) through various joint ventures.

Talking exclusively to Autocar Professional on the second day of the fourth Global Automotive Forum (GAF 2013) in Wuhan, China, Yeap Swee Chuan, president and CEO, AAPICO Hitech Public Company Limited, disclosed that he plans to make a “formal announcement on our India plans shortly”.

However, being the head of a publicly listed company (on the stock exchange of Thailand), Chuan hesitated to reveal investment details, preferring to say that he recently visited Sricity in Andhra Pradesh, which as is known is the chosen site of Isuzu’s upcoming plant in India.

Chuan believes that while the quality of automotive components manufactured in Thailand is far superior to those of Indian origin, the latter’s strength stands in the forged components and forging operations. “We are talking to some forging companies in India and, if things go well, we might soon form a joint venture to set up our operations there,” added Chuan.

He signed off by saying, “I plan to double the company turnover in next five years and to do that, China and India are unavoidable markets. We already have operations in China.”