Bangkok Post

“We have reaffirmed our competitive position within the consumer electronics industry thanks to our variety of product lines and lower prices,” said Kenji Kumaki, the president and managing director of Nikon Sales (Thailand), the Japanese firm’s Bangkok-based subsidiary.

Nikon Thailand recorded 70% year-on-year revenue growth last year, outpacing local industry growth of 13%.

The company had a 10% increase in market share for digital single-lens reflex cameras (SLRs).

Market share in the company’s equally popular mirrorless cameras, which have an interchangeable lens but no mirror-based optical viewfinder, also saw growth of nearly 20% last year.

Despite the increase in market share, last year’s overall growth for Nikon, whose parent company is multinational conglomerate the Mitsubishi Group, was only 13%.

Mr Kumaki openly admits the astonishing success of smartphones has nearly depleted sales of the…

Full story from Bangkok Post at http://goo.gl/hTf6k

The Nation

“Because of the baht’s appreciation that creates a lower return for exporters, they will force farmers to purchase goods at low prices and that will end up hitting local farmers hard,” permanent secretary Vatchari Vimooktayon said yesterday.

The ministry reported that exports last month improved 10.52 per cent to US$18.69 billion, or 5.37 per cent Bt543.7 billion in baht terms.

Exports in the first four months grew 5.74 per cent to $75.66 billion, or only 1.6 per cent to Bt2.24 trillion.

The strong performance was attributed to a low base in April last year. Industrial exports climbed by 9.4 per cent, but farm goods and agro-industrial products declined 2.8 per cent.

If government agencies have no plan to solve the baht problem, shipments this year could even miss the recently reduced target of 7-7.5 per cent to between $245 billion and…

Full story from The Nation at http://goo.gl/tOZdF

Bangkok Post

Director-general Naris Chaiyasoot said his department will hold an auction for private developers wanting to participate.

Three of the plots are along the Bangkok-Phitsanulok section of the planned northern rail line _ 40 rai in Lop Buri province, 453 rai in Phitsanulok and 845 rai in Nakhon Sawan.

This rail section is expected to be the first to begin construction.

The other two plots are along the Bangkok-Nakhon Ratchasima and Bangkok-Hua Hin routes. They are 550 rai in Nakhon Ratchasima and 30 rai in Phetchaburi’s Cha-am district.

The high-speed railway is a major part of the Pheu Thai-led coalition government’s 2 trillion baht worth of infrastructure projects planned over the course of seven years starting this year.

A draft bill allowing the government to borrow to fund project investment is awaiting parliamentary…

Full story from Bangkok Post at http://goo.gl/idLgZ

The Nation

“The key role of Dutch Mill Group is to ensure cooperatives that milk-collection centres will have at least four quality inspections a month, to send the company’s team to support farmer-care activities and to be involved in staff development of milk-collection centres,” vice president Pornchai Sawadsuksobchai said yesterday.

“Dutch Mill Group will also offer a higher buy-in price for raw milk supplied by cooperative/milk collection centres that achieve the pre-set objectives,” he said.

This project involves 3,587 contracted farms and 18 raw-milk storage centres nationwide. The objectives are to ensure world-class raw-milk quality and 15 kilograms of milk production per cow per day within three years.

In the past two years, Dutch Mill, a leading milk producer and distributor in Asean, has assisted dairy farmers via the “tripartite raw milk upgrade” project, aimed at upgrading the standards of local dairy farms, boosting daily milk…

Full story from The Nation at http://goo.gl/Oi256

Bangkok Post

Total exports last month fared better than expected, amounting to US$19.7 billion.

In baht terms, export value rose by 5.4% to 544 billion baht, said Vatchari Vimooktayon, the commerce permanent secretary.

Industrial shipments rose by 19.3% to $12.4 billion, driven by electronics (+45.2%), automobiles and parts (+19.1%), construction materials (+15.8%) and furniture (+17.1%).

But agricultural shipments fell by 4.4% to $2.92 billion on weakness in frozen shrimp (-30.8%), sugar (-24%), tapioca products (-14.2%), rice (-8.4%) and rubber (-8.1%). Only vegetables and frozen poultry saw increases of 4.9% and 3.3%, respectively.

The dip in farm exports was blamed on the appreciating baht, which reached as high as 29.62 to the US dollar last month from 30.37 in January.

For the first four months, exports _ constituting up to 70% of the country’s gross domestic…

Full story from Bangkok Post at http://goo.gl/avCJD

The Nation

NED president Johnny Chuen Yu Wang said the solar-powered plant had capacity of 84MW. Construction began in 2010, with the first phase completed in 2011 and the second phase this month. The plant utilises thin-film solar technology, which is most suitable for Thailand’s climate, and 540,000 solar panels.

The Sharp brand solar cells come with a 25-year usage warranty, with no more than a 10-per-cent drop in power generation during the warranty period.

NED has established contracts to supply power to the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand; the first phase reached full production capacity in March.

The Lopburi Solar project is entitled to the Bt8-per-unit power-purchase price. This rate will allow NED to reap ROI within 10 years.

Revenue this year from sale of power in the first phase is projected at about Bt750 million, and between…

Full story from The Nation at http://goo.gl/fBzPc

Bangkok Post

QTC Energy Plc is an electricity distribution transformer manufacturer that was founded (as QTC Marketing and Service) in 1996. Our transformers are sized from one to 30,000 kVA (kilovolt-amperes) and we have the capacity to manufacture on average 3,000 units per year. The majority of our business is in Thailand with the private sector representing 40%, the public sector 35% and exports the remainder.

QTC’s business has grown strongly over the past few years. What is the main reason for this?

We have grown well because of our people; we have a very dynamic environment as the average age of our workforce is 30-31 years. We have strong internal systems to ensure that our products are world-class, delivered on time to customers, and…

Full story from Bangkok Post at http://goo.gl/LhOsV

The Nation

“Many of our customers who had travelled overseas when the baht hovered at around 33.5 to US$1 found the current rates irresistible and have opted for another trip overseas,” Wanida Hongsunirandon, travel manager for Holiday Tours & Travel (Thailand) and the general sales agent of Trafalgar, said yesterday.

Nicholas Lim, regional director for Trafalgar Asia, said that with a robust Asian economy and currencies versus a weakened euro and British pound, the buying power for Europe is stronger than ever. “As a result, bookings have doubled compared with the same period last year, putting Asia on a commanding lead of 45-per-cent growth within the region,” he said.

Those whose travel plans had been held up by unfavourable exchange rates now consider the new rates acceptable and decided it was time to travel overseas, Wanida said.

Taking 2008 as the base year, the baht has improved by about 10 per cent against the US dollar, 19 per…

Full story from The Nation at http://goo.gl/4eSJY

The Nation

Fox International Channels is a unit of News Corporation. Under this partnership, GMM Z hopes to lure new subscribers with a wide range of premium programmes. For example, it will air some Star World programmes on its GMM Movie Channel. These will include “Glee”, “How I Met Your Mother”, “Grey’s Anatomy”, “American Idol” and “MasterChef”.

Rafah Damrongchaitham, chief executive officer for content management at GMM Z, the pay-TV unit of GMM Grammy, said that in the second half of this year, the Bt5-billion-plus pay-TV market was expected to see intense competition thanks to aggressive marketing efforts from both new players like CTH and current market leaders such as TrueVisions.

To prepare GMM Z for this tough situation, the company opted to offer its customers more choices, he said.

The Fox partnership is a part of an investment of more than Bt2.5 billion to acquire imported content.

Rafah said his company had set affordable prices with killer content from leading international production houses…

Full story from The Nation at http://goo.gl/bvwHe

The Nation

NMG last month said it planned to increase registered capital by Bt1.79 billion from Bt873.3 million by issuing 3.38 billion new shares at Bt0.53 per share, of which 1.65 billion shares will be allocated to existing shareholders at the ratio of one new share for one existing share at Bt1 each.

The company will also issue 1.65 million warrants and certify the 82.38 million ESOP (employee stock option) warrant shares allocated for NMG executives and employees.

NMG expects its revenues this quarter to be on par with the first quarter, which saw revenue from print adverts increasing by 6 per cent year on year, which is faster than the market’s 4 per cent. Advertising revenues from satellite TV channels in the period increased by 22 per cent and new-media channels by 21 per cent.

The company expects revenue for the whole year to rise 15-16 per cent to Bt3.5 billion from Bt3.1 billion…

Full story from The Nation at http://goo.gl/VYq01