CMK spends B4bn to expand local PCB plant

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CMK spends B4bn to expand local PCB plant

ARANEE JAIIMSIN

 

CMK Corporation (CMK), the world's largest printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturer, plans to invest four billion baht, or 12 billion yen, to raise its production capacity in Thailand to 100,000 square metres per month by March 2008. The Japanese company has already invested the same amount of capital during the last 15 months to build its first PCB production plant in Thailand with monthly capacity of 65,000 square metres. CMK officially opened its first factory in Prachin Buri on Thursday.

 

One square metre of PCB can be used for making base stations or portable information terminal apparatuses for 140 mobile phones.

 

The new investment plan also reflects CMK's ambition to become the only PCB maker in the world.

 

''To become number one in the business is not enough to guarantee our survival so we must be the only one,'' said president Takahiro Nakayama.

 

Accumulated know-how, in line with non-stop technology development, would enable the company to achieve its projections, he said yesterday.

 

CMK's outputs can be installed in all sorts of electronic goods, including cellular phones, power steering systems, television sets, computers, computer games, and audio-visual devices.

 

Thailand is the seventh country outside Japan in which CMK has made investments after Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Europe, the United States and China. The company has frozen production activity in Singapore, Europe and the US but is expanding in China and Thailand. CMK now has four factories in China and plans to double production capacity in Thailand.

 

''Cost is a very important factor for us. Thailand could be more attractive than China if products from Thailand are absolutely flawless,'' said Mr Nakayama.

 

It was necessary for CMK to expand both production bases and sales hubs to many countries in order to provide quick service to its customers, he added.

 

CMK chose to invest in Thailand recently because a significant amount of customers in Japan have been operating in the country for many years.

 

''Thailand offers us huge investment benefits and I don't see the economic policy of the Thai government as unstable,'' said Mr Nakayama.

 

The baht's appreciation against the dollar doesn't hurt CMK's operations in the country. In fact, it helps cut down production costs due to the fact that the ratio of imported to local content used in its production process is 80:20, said Junichi Itsuji, managing director of CMK Corporation (Thailand) Co Ltd.

 

Mr Itsuji said sales revenue was targeted at 12 billion yen for the first year of operations.

 

CMK hopes to grow more than 10% a year from the expansion of the electronics industry worldwide, and growing demand for high-value-added PCBs.