It is with great pleasure that , Sofian & I can be here in Thailand to attend this CA Signing Ceremony. Before I continue, I would like to apologize on behalf of for not being here. She has actually made all the arrangements to come but in the last minute, due to her health condition, it didn’t permit her to travel at this moment. As such, she has sent me to represent her & HTS.
The last time we were here was in Jan’15 to be involved in the negotiations with you. HTS is happy that the agreement was finally achieved in Feb’15 after a few rounds of negotiations even involving the Rayong Labor Department. I must congratulate the team, both HAPT management & HAPT Union team to come to a conclusion. I was told that the negotiations for this CA for 2015-16 is so much easier compared to the last CA for 2014-15. This is a good sign that the relationship between the HAPT management & Union has grown and matured over the years.
I would like to touch a bit on the current HAPT business situation. As you know, the business from our main customer, General Motors Thailand, has been slowing down for the past 2 years. We used to deliver 3,000 – 4,000 car sets/month to GMTH in 2012/13. But in Jul – Oct’14, we only made < 100 car sets/month. In the last 6 months, average delivery was between 500 – 700 car sets/month. Forecast for next 6 months is reducing to about 300-400 car sets/month.
As such, I’m sure you have realized that in the last 1 year, HAPT management has been constantly engaged in different cost reduction activities, eg. Using recycled resins for molding, running the 3000T in bigger batches to reduce number of mold changeovers, using recycled thinner to clean the paint booths, tighter control of material issuance. This we need to continue in order to make our business sustainable.
From a customer point of view, we continue to have the CBC Forma business where we supply to 2CY Spoilers & 2XP Skid Plates. Starting Dec’15, we will have a new model 2SV (replacing 2CY). We also have new molding business from Sanko Gosei for molding 2CT Inner Fenders & T6 Mazda bumpers. We will continue to work with our customers to get more business to sustain our business.
As for factory operations, we need the commitment from the Union to survive the current condition. Your cooperation to ensure continuous cost reduction and improvement, cost saving, no quality issue and on time delivery to avoid unnecessary cost incurred. We are also doing plant shutdown & reduction of OT. We need your corporation to improve the current situation.
I would like to say congratulations for this CA Signing between & Union. It shows we can work together to come to a common conclusion. We need to continue this attitude in the coming months & years to get through this challenging time.