Small Thai Manufacturers of Electronics Adapt to Survive Downturn.

Byline: Chatrudee Theparat

Aug. 1--Small-scale manufacturers of electronics are reshaping their businesses to cope with the downturn in the American and Japanese markets.

The companies have been able to survive by improving product quality, trimming costs, using more local content and finding new customers, said Visarn Tanvichian, chief of the Board of Investment's Unit for Industrial Linkage Development (Build).

Pornchai Chareonsawan, administration manager of Noble Electronics Thailand Co, said the company had not been adversely affected this year and projected sales worth two billion baht, up from 920 million baht last year and 473 million baht in 1999.

As well as retaining customers, it had signed up to supply JVC operations in Japan and Malaysia as new customers.The existing customers include Sony, Panasonic, Hitachi, Aiwa, Thomson and Canon.

However, the company was worried that the recession in the United States and Japan would dent revenue next year. To cushion the impact, the company plans to upgrade product quality, cut production costs and use more local content.

About 85 percent of the raw materials used by the company were imported, Mr Pornchai said. The company intended to increase the use of local content to 50 percent in three years.