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BANGKOK - Ford Motor Co and Mazda Motor Corp will announce plans for a new Thai car factory with an investment of about US$500 million ($666 million), a source familiar with the project said today.
The factory, to be built next to their existing pickup truck plant in the southeastern province of Rayong, will produce subcompact cars, the source said.
Mazda, held one-third by Ford, said earlier that its president, Hisakazu Imaki, would hold a news conference at 0900 GMT in Hiroshima regarding the company's 50-50 Thai joint venture with Ford. A separate briefing will take place in Bangkok at 0930 GMT.
A Mazda spokesman declined to provide further details.
The two automakers had been expected to announce plans to boost production in Thailand after Mazda executive vice president Robert Graziano said in March that they had entered discussions with the Thai government over the issue. A separate Mazda executive said then that some of the added capacity would be used to supply demand in Europe.
Mazda remodelled its Mazda2/Demio subcompact in July, saying it aimed to sell at least 130,000 units of the model a year globally.
The announcement would follow the opening last month of Ford and Mazda's new three-way factory in Nanjing, China, with local partner Chongqing Changan Automobile Co. The 160,000-units-a-year factory also builds the Mazda2 model.
Ford and Mazda's current Thai factory has an annual output capacity of 173,000 units, and exclusively builds pickup trucks, mainly for exports.
Mazda's shares rose 3.2 per cent to 648 yen in morning trade, boosted by the US dollar's rise against the yen.
- REUTERS
