National oil and gas conglomerate PTT Plc aims to focus more on electric vehicle (EV) charging services in line with Thailand's expanding EV market, but will consider adjusting its other EV-related businesses, including its electric car assembly operations.
The refocusing of PTT's EV businesses is part of the company's efforts to revisit oil and non-oil businesses, including having talks with prospective investors with a view to selling a portion of shares in PTT Global Chemical, Thai Oil and IRPC, which are units of PTT, to improve oil refinery and petrochemical businesses, which are currently affected by the impact of the US-China trade war, said Kongkrapan Intarajang, chief executive and president of PTT.
But the EV charging business, operated by PTT Oil and Retail Business Plc (OR), a subsidiary of PTT, is robust and growing, he said.
OR earlier announced it plans to increase its investment in the battery charging business via its EV Station PluZ plan.
The company expects to have 600 charging outlets nationwide within 2024, up from 400 outlets as of July 2023, with an aim to increase the number to 7,000 by 2030.
Arun Plus, a wholly-owned subsidiary of PTT, runs EV charging stations under its own "on-ion" brand to benefit from the government's policy to promote the EV industry.
The firm also sells EV chargers and provides a charger installation service for home users.
In the long term, PTT plans to run its charging business under a single brand, said Mr Kongkrapan.
Other EV-related businesses, including car assembly, battery manufacturing and serving as a sales agent for Guangzhou-based Chinese EV maker Xpeng, are operated by PTT's subsidiaries and many of these businesses are run under joint ventures.
"We are considering what will be the right directions of these businesses," said Mr Kongkrapan.
Adjustments to PTT's non-oil and oil businesses are being made under the company's move to reconsider their business plans to align them with rapid changes in the global market, including tougher competition.
PTT on Tuesday reported that it earned 1.6 trillion baht during the first half of 2024, a year-on-year increase of 4.5%, with net profit increasing by 34% to 64.4 billion baht, up from 47.9 billion baht in the corresponding period last year.
PTT attributed the increase in its revenue mainly to higher global crude oil prices and stock gains from oil trading.
It managed to earn higher revenue despite a decrease in the prices of gas and imported liquefied natural gas, lower oil sales at petrol stations as well as a requirement to give money to the government to help regulate power bills.
PTT announced late last year that it charged a gas supplier 4.3 billion baht for failing to deliver a certain amount of gas as required by a contract, known as a shortfall of gas, to the company. It transferred the 4.3 billion baht to the government in January, helping it control power prices from January to April this year when the power tariff stood at 4.18 baht per unit.