QINGDAO: Haier Group, the Chinese home appliance giant, is considering using Thailand as its manufacturing and export hub for Asia-Pacific, attracted by the country's logistics and production capability.
"Thailand is one of the world's strongest production bases for Haier as it has supporting units such as research and development (R&D) centres, trading companies and industrial estates. I think Thailand will become our hub for Asia-Pacific very soon," said Du Jingguo, chief executive of Haier Asia.
Thailand's importance in the Asia-Pacific region will increase in the future.
Mr Du set two conditions to make Thailand the regional hub.
First, Haier has to rank among the top-three home appliance brands in the country.
Second, Thailand has to have an intelligent plant like the central air conditioning and interconnected plant in Qingdao, China.
Haier now ranks between 6th and 8th places for different product categories in Thailand.
Mr Du is confident that Haier will become a top-three home appliance player in Thailand in the coming years.
Meanwhile, Haier (Thailand) president Yang Xiaolin said the company next year will spend 300 million baht to beef up the production capacity of home appliances and create a premium image for the brand.
It will produce side-by-side refrigerators and self-cleaning commercial air conditioners at its plant in Prachin Buri.
Haier (Thailand) has set next year's sales target at 2.2 billion baht. It normally sees 20% sales growth each year.
Haier products, including washing machines, refrigerators, TV sets and air-conditioners, are well regarded by Thai consumers.
"We aim to boost our Thai sales volume by enhancing R&D to make these home appliances more functional to compete with other big brands," Mr Yang said.
Despite sluggish domestic and global economies as well as intense competition, Haier still aims to raise its sales globally. Next year, Haier projects generating revenue of 52.4 billion baht in Asia-Pacific.
Haier has many intelligent plants in China and its central air conditioning and interconnected plant in Qingdao is its latest facility to serve its 10-year plan in line with Industry 4.0.
It has invested 2 billion baht in the Qingdao plant, which was launched late last month.
The 40,000-square-metre eco-friendly plant has full-command and internet-based manufacturing robots and offers the most accurate product processing, slashing product inventory waste by 80% and reducing the number of staff to only 227.
Mr Du said he expects a similar intelligent plant to be set up in Thailand soon.
Haier has already launched a number of intelligent plants including a refrigerator factory in Shenyang, an air-conditioner plant in Zhengzhou and an electrical appliance facility in Foshan.
Mr Du said the company has adapted its business model to the digital era by making its consumers part of the design process at both R&D and manufacturing levels.
He added Haier will continue to maintain its position as the world's biggest major appliance brand.