It also has majority stakes in four other firms producing plastic household utensils and packaging, Viet-Thai Plastchem Joint Venture Company, TPC Vina – Plastic & Chemical Corp Ltd, Chemtech, and Minh Thai Plastic Material Co Ltd.

It has a 20 per cent stake in Binh Minh Plastic JSC and nearly 25 per cent stake in Tien Phong JSC, who together hold half the market share in the plastic building materials market.

SCG and many other Thai firms are continuing to acquire stakes in plastics companies.

Tran Viet Anh, chairman and general manager of Nam Thai Son Co and deputy chairman of the HCM City Rubber – Plastic Manufacturers Association, said the country has nearly 3,000 plastics companies, 99.8 per cent of them private.

Thai companies are primarily aiming at the top 100 firms, he said.

Lacking the confidence to take on the new rivals, in many cases showing signs of declining production and business capacity, many domestic firms agree to sell out when foreign investors offer high prices for their stakes, he said.

Ho Duc Lam, chairman of the Vietnam Plastics Association, said by increasing investment in the country’s plastic industry, Thai firms hope to both exploit the lucrative domestic market and take advantage of free trade agreements that Vietnam has signed.

The plastics industry is one of the fastest growing in Vietnam, expanding annually at 16-18 per cent in 2010-15, Lam, who is also chairman of Rang Dong Plastic joint Stock Company, said.

But with the annual plastic consumption per capita in Vietnam at just 41kg, much lower than in other countries, the prospects remain huge, he said.

Anh said Thai firms only pay one per cent or even zero per cent interest on bank loans for certain projects, while Vietnamese firms have to pay 6-7 per cent, making it hard for them to compete with the Thais.

The HCM City Rubber- Plastic Manufacturers Association urged domestic firms to strengthen co-operation among themselves.

To support domestic companies, it said HCM City should create an area exclusively for plastic firms and develop a production chain model to reduce costs.

TPAC designs and manufactures bespoke rigid plastic packaging solutions across the food, pharmaceutical and homecare industries.

It boasts a track record of more than 30 years in delivering sustainable and innovative packaging solutions to the world’s leading consumer goods companies.

Last year the company increased its net profit nearly 12 per cent to Bt104.2 million. It brought its debt-to-equity ratio down to about 0.2 times through repayment of loans via strong cashflow from perations.

Overseas expansion

The company is looking beyond Thailand to expand its operations.

“We are staying alert to synergistic growth opportunities that will enable us to further serve |our customers internationally”, |he said.

The company has outstanding warrants maturing in this first half of the year.

The Lohia family acquired 60.5 per cent of TPAC last year.

A 10-rai site in the Dawei Special Economic Zone’s initial phase was reserved for about Bt30 million. As soon as VSI Union Thai is registered, an ice plant will be constructed, to be followed by a processing plant whose output will be going to Thailand as well as Italy and Japan.

“In five years, more seafood businesses in Thailand will move here as this is home to most of our workers,” he said while inspecting his site last week.

He was chairman of the Ranong Chamber of Commerce.

His family now operates plants in Ranong, and Samut Sakhon. Of about 1,000 workers, 90 per cent come from Myanmar.

Somchai made this decision despite his bitter experience from a long time ago when his freezers located near Myeik were confiscated by a military government.

But given the depletion of marine life in Thailand’s seas, he continued sourcing seafood from Myeik and Dawei in the past 15 years. Some 14 locals are now responsible for the sourcing.

He is also now confident that his business will be protected under Myanmar law, just like other foreign businesses in the country.

Now, he sees only the bright side. The abundance of seafood and factory hands is one thing. He also expects to gain a lot from investment privileges offered to businesses in special economic zones as well as the European Union’s generalised system of preferences (GSP) offered to labour-intensive industries in Myanmar.

“GSP should give us an ample handicap (for exporting to the EU),” he said.

The decision was also made at the time when Thailand’s seafood industry is facing some non-tariff measures. The EU’s tough requirements for Thailand to comply with the illegal, unreported and unregulated rule result in difficulties in sourcing materials, he said.

He is now waiting for the one-stop service centre to open at the Dawei SEZ. This will confirm investment privileges his company will be entitled to.

Labour-intensive industries like textile and seafood are the first targets of this SEZ. The full phase, however, expects to attract other industries including automobile, steel, electronics and electric goods, rubber, metals, chemicals, refineries, fertilisers, plastics and pharmaceuticals.

While he was waiting, four freezers were hauled from Thailand and are ready to transport raw seafood to Ranong and even Mahachai. Each can carry two tonnes of seafood.

Once the processing factory is up and running, it will produce frozen shrimp and filets. The shortage of skilled labour would limit the plant’s capacity somewhat.

However, that is not a problem. If things go as planned, Somchai even mulls acquiring 10 more rai in the economic zone.

In case Krabi’s coal-fired power plant cannot go ahead, the government may turn to gas-fired power plants and the country will need to import more LNG.

“If the Energy Ministry will limit the role of PTT in building LNG terminals, we may able to help supply (LNG),” he said.

The Petroleum Institute of Thailand, which conducted a study on behalf of the Energy Regulatory Commission, has recommended that the government break up the monopoly of PTT, the state-controlled energy conglomerate, in the LNG industry by allowing other investors to build LNG receiving terminals to serve the country’s growing demand for LNG after PTT commences its second five million tonne per year terminal in Map Ta Phut next year.

Voravit Potisuk, senior executive vice president for Egco, said yesterday that the firm would partner with Tepco, its second largest shareholder, and other Thai investors to build LNG receiving facilities for supplying other LNG consumers in Thailand.

The country is forecast to require 15 million tonnes of additional LNG imports over the next 20 years to replace dwindling supplies of piped natural gas from the Gulf of Thailand and Myanmar’s fields, he said.

“Japan and Thailand could be complementing each other well (in LNG trading) since they have different seasons of high demand for LNG.

“But the risk is also high because if we trade one million tonnes, it will involve tens of billions of baht. We have to consider carefully,” he said.

Egco would focus on exploring further investment opportunities in the countries where it already has established foundations – particularly the Philippines and Laos.

It is also eyeing Indonesia and Australia where it has already started some investments, as well as other nations such as Myanmar and Vietnam.

Besides conventional power generation, the group is also looking to invest in other businesses that it considers having potential such as renewable energy in the Philippines and other neighbouring countries.

Renewable energy, including hydropower, is expected to increase its share to 20 per cent of Egco’s total generating capacity by 2025 from 14-15 per cent at present.

Egco is pushing for the development of five power projects in other Asean countries:

-US$2.4 billion, 1-gigawatt Pak Beng hydropower project in Laos

– $1.40 billion, 650-megawatt Nam Theun 1 hydropower project in Laos

– $400 million, 450MW LNG-fired power project in Dawei, Myanmar

– 1.22-gigawatt coal-fired project in Quang Tri, Vietnam

– 60MW expansion of its Star Energy Geothermal power plant in Indonesia

“The Nam Theun 1 project is progressing well. We expect to sign the PPA (power purchase agreement) by no later than June and to finalise loan agreements in September,” he said. Egco expects its operating profit to grow by 5 per cent this year.

It remains committed to its goal to achieve Bt10 billion in operating profit next year.

Chanin admitted it might be more difficult for the group to maintain its 10-per-cent annual profit growth rate that it has achieved for the last five years since 2001, in the future.

She said the company would continuously enhance its solar-power generation capacity both in Thailand and overseas, especially Japan, where it has identified opportunities for future investment in solar farms.

The company is in the process of negotiating with a few Japanese business alliances in order to invest in solar farm projects with total capacity of 40-50MW. The results of the negotiation should be finalised by midyear.

At its most recent meeting, the board of directors approved a contractual agreement with Prospec Holdings Inc for the construction of solar farms with installed operating capacity of 17.5MW in Ishikawa prefecture. The estimated budget for the projects’ development is Bt2 billion and construction is due to commence this quarter, with completion expected next year.

Currently, the combined capacity of TSE’s projects in Japan is about 42MW.

“We are at the forefront in the expansion of renewable-energy power plants in Asia, both solar power and other types of energy sources, through collaborations with project-development alliances to lift TSE as a leading corporation in the energy business in Asia, especially Japan and AEC member states,” Cathleen said.

She added that TSE aimed to reach a target capacity of 100MW in its overseas projects this year, and to raise that to 300MW within three years.

Meanwhile, TSE announced a 139-per-cent surge in power sales in 2015, while net operating profit (exclusive of special items) increased by 38 per cent from 2014 after full-year realisation of revenue from rooftop solar panels installed on commercial buildings.