"Our development speed cannot keep up with the speed of land purchase by Chinese enterprises. ”
Text / Ba Jiuling
Drove to an open flat land, as far as the eye could see, the land was still level, and the dust was flying.
In March this year, we came to Thailand to make a prelude to dozens of entrepreneurs who will go to Thailand in May. One of the stops on the trip is the WHA Industrial Park in Rayong, Thailand and China.
We wanted to look at the industrial land, but the developer said that there was no existing land and factories for sale.
Referring to the reason, he said with a smile: "Our development speed cannot keep up with the speed of land purchase by Chinese-funded enterprises. ”
Finally, he takes us to a piece of land that is still under development, one of which has been acquired by a Chinese company called Seiko Industry, which is breaking ground for the construction of a factory, which will be the first enterprise on this land.
WHA Industrial Park
Source: Internet
Chinese companies are busy hoarding land in Thailand, and Thai developers have long been accustomed to this.
In 2022 and 2023, Chinese investment in Thailand will be the top 1 in terms of foreign investment in Thailand, while Chinese investment accounts for 25% of Thailand's total foreign direct investment (FDI) and has a tendency to lag behind other countries.
In Thailand, in 2023, the total investment from the top three investors – China, Singapore and the United States – reached 159.387 billion baht, 123.385 billion baht and 83.954 billion baht, respectively, while Japan ranked fourth with 79.151 billion baht.
Chinese capital is twice as large as that of the United States and Japan.
In today's article, we will bring you the results and feelings of this front-line investigation, and we also hope to bring you a different Thailand - a strong manufacturing city outside of tourism.
The blue ocean of new energy vehicles
In Thailand's WHA Industrial Park, in addition to that land, we also see Ford, Mazda, BYD, Suzuki, Mitsubishi, Great Wall, MG and many other world-famous car brands gathered here.
Automobiles are Thailand's number one pillar industry, accounting for about 12% of GDP.
Looking at the world, Thailand is a major automobile manufacturer in Southeast Asia, and is the only one in the whole of Asia except for China, Japan and South Korea, with an annual output of 2 million units.
In Thailand, Japanese companies have long accounted for about 90% of the production capacity, and although they have declined in recent years, they still firmly control the Thai automotive industry.
They are very competitive. We saw in the park that in order not to let Suzuki on the other side see the finished product, Mitsubishi loaded all the cars produced in containers. General Motors and its Chevrolet brand, which were once the first foreign-funded car companies to settle in the park, have withdrawn their industrial chain from Thailand to the United States.
The biggest variable in the Thai auto market is China's new energy vehicles.
At present, Chinese companies account for as much as 8% of Thailand's electric vehicle market, and Japanese companies such as Toyota and Nissan account for less than 1%. In 2023, the share of Chinese brands' automotive production capacity will increase to 11%.
In 2023, Thailand's BEV sales will reach 76,314 units, 7.8 times that of 2022. Among them, BYD ranks first in the new energy car with a share of about 4% - in the entire Thai car market, BYD ranks sixth, closely following Ford and Mitsubishi.
BYD participated in the 45th Bangkok International Motor Show
A battle is brewing in Thailand for China's emerging forces to challenge Japan's established giants. In addition to BYD, SAIC's MG will sell 27,311 vehicles in 2023, ranking seventh. Nezha, a new force in China's new energy vehicles, sold 13,836 vehicles, ranking tenth. There is also a Great Wall Motor, with sales of 13,039 units, squeezing into the top ten, and the future can be expected.
Thailand's incentives for electric vehicles are also significant: subsidies of 70,000-150,000 baht ($1,400 to $3,000) per electric vehicle are provided.
Because of the maturity of the automobile manufacturing industry, Thailand's auto parts industry chain is also extremely developed. Weihua Industrial Park and Rayong Taizhong Industrial Park – these two parks are home to a large number of auto parts companies, especially those from Jiangsu and Zhejiang, China.
On a map of China displayed at the Luotai Industrial Park, they marked the number of companies in each province of China that have invested in the park, including 56 in Taiwan and 53 in Zhejiang.
When we said "from Zhejiang", the park staff smiled on their faces.
It is understood that there are more than 4,000 auto parts dealers in Thailand, and the purchase volume of a small number of leading enterprises is less than 10% of the overall market share, and the market concentration is still low and the development space is large. Thailand has an auto parts exhibition (TAPA), which has a history of more than 50 years and is one of the most influential and innovative auto parts exhibitions in Asia.
An interesting episode is that a local friend in Thailand said that she bought a BYD, and a total of 200,000 yuan was calculated, and we said, "In China, it is less than 100,000 yuan." In this regard, she was very calm and said: "Because BYD is an imported car, of course it is expensive!"
At that time, I saw the scene when Chinese bought Japanese and German cars twenty years ago. Only now, this scene has been replicated in China's new energy vehicles.
Why did the Chinese put their money in Thailand?
Among the major countries in Southeast Asia, Thailand is regarded as a "hexagonal warrior", compared with Singapore and Malaysia, it has the advantages of population, land area, and natural resources, and its economic development and industrial perfection are higher than Indonesia and Vietnam.
Port of Bangkok, Thailand
Since the 60s of the 20th century, the Asian economy has taken off, and the "Asian Tigers" have borne the brunt, and in the eighties and nineties, the "Asian Tigers" (Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia) have followed closely. Thailand, as the head of the "Asian Tigers", has created an economic miracle with an average annual GDP growth rate of nearly 10% for 10 consecutive years.
As a result, Thailand's per capita GDP was higher than that of China until 2010. But with the development of China's economy, in the minds of the Chinese people, Thailand has slowly become a country with low consumption but rich tourism resources. The role of the "Asian Tigers" is slowly being forgotten.
In fact, Thailand is an old capitalist country. Xiao Xiaotro, the head of investment of KReVision Fund (Hong Kong), who has been in Thailand for 10 years, once mentioned in an interview with the media:
Before the 1997 financial crisis, European and American funds invested mainly in Thailand, where Japanese and Taiwanese companies had also been deeply engaged for many years - at that time, electronic products in Taiwan, China were made in Thailand.
As an investment destination, Thailand has gone through many rounds of overseas investment boom. It has a deep foundation in home appliance assembly, light industry, automobiles and other industries. In addition, cultural categories, such as film post-production, game post-production, and advertising creative design, are also strong areas in Thailand.
Today, with a population of nearly 70 million and a large number of workers from Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos, Thailand is the second largest economy in Southeast Asia, after Indonesia.
GDP per capita ranks fourth, at around $7,000, behind Brunei, Singapore, Malaysia and other countries, and nearly double that of Indonesia.
In addition to its relatively mature industrial base, Thailand is also attracted to the following reasons for attracting Chinese investment:
1. Stable political environment and friendly relations with China. "Stability is paramount", this sentence is no exaggeration when placed in the selection of overseas destinations for enterprises. The unstable political environment may make the company's overseas layout go to zero overnight.
Thailand still retains the royal family, and the real power and influence of the royal family are still huge, which is one of the reasons for the stability of the Thai regime. At the same time, as a Buddhist country, the overall character of the people is moderate.
Kwong Kam Rong, chairman of the Thai-Chinese Overseas Chinese Entrepreneurs Association, who has lived in Thailand for 31 years, also told us about Thailand's "coup tradition": "It is just a gentle power struggle at the top, which never sheds blood, and does not interfere with the business environment. At the time of the curfew, there are 10 categories of people who are excluded from the curfew, including those engaged in commercial activities. ”
The friendly relations between China and Thailand are also an important reason why Chinese investors choose Thailand. Nearly 100 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Thailand, the interaction between the two governments has always been relatively friendly. In Thailand, the proportion of Chinese reaches 12%-14%, and a considerable number of Thai government officials are descendants of Chinese, so the Thai people are relatively friendly to Chinese.
The Big Buddha of Pratunam Temple in Bangkok, Thailand
◎ Second, it is friendly to foreign investment, and the rules are relatively transparent.
For example, the free flow of capital and the preferential tax treatment of foreign investment. The rules of economic activity are relatively transparent, especially in some industries with local protectionism, and the opportunities for foreign companies are also relatively transparent.
For example, for some projects that cannot be tendered by foreign enterprises, foreign enterprises and local enterprises are allowed to form a consortium to bid together; in the construction of Thai government projects, 60% of the steel products are localized, and the remaining part can be imported into foreign products. In Thailand's Board of Investment (BOI), there are English and Chinese, and the preferential policies for enterprises in different industries are clearly visible.
◎ Third, there are abundant industrial opportunities. In addition to spilling over and transferring part of China's industrial chain to overseas, an opportunity that we cannot ignore is how to combine our own industrial capabilities with local resources to achieve the effect of 1+1>2.
Thailand has abundant opportunities in this regard. During his visit to the Thai Chinese Economic Association, Mr. Cai Baishan, Advisor to the Deputy Prime Minister and President of Thailand, mentioned the following industrial cooperation opportunities for your reference:
1. Deep processing of agricultural and sideline products
2. Upgrading of rubber industry
3. Medical production
4. High-luxury tourism services
5. Education, trade and large-scale exhibitions, etc
6. Pension industry, such as global pension industry services
Continue to take root and sprout
In addition to the heat, we also need to be more rational about going to sea. Specifically, before going to sea, we can think about five aspects.
1. Do full thinking and research before going to sea until you can answer the following questions clearly:
◎ Am I suitable (from the perspective of industry and enterprise) to go overseas?
◎ What form is suitable for me to go to sea?
◎ Where is my first stop on the sea?
◎ What are the advantages of going to sea?
◎ Where are the risks of going to sea?
2. Carry out the planning of the rhythm of going to sea:
◎ Is trade first, or manufacturing second?
◎ Or two-way parallel, part of the order transfer + part of the production line input?
◎ Or consider heavy troops, directly buy land and build a house.
3. Do a good job of sufficient research and investigation for the destination country:
◎ National policies, fiscal and taxation laws, human resources, industrial environment and foundation need to be well understood.
4. Compliance, legality, reasonableness.
◎ Respect local laws and regulations, respect local cultural customs, and integrate into local management culture.
5. Gradually establish global management capabilities and teams.
"In addition to the industrial park, we are already planning commercial real estate, apartments, and international kindergartens. Mr. Zhao, President of Huali Taizhong Rayong Industrial Park, said. There are tens of thousands of Chinese in their current industrial area alone, and these people face all the needs of living, starting a family, having children, and raising children in Thailand.
Chinese enterprises are gradually starting to take root in Thailand.
Thailand is just a microcosm of the boom in Chinese companies going overseas.
本篇作者 | 林波 | 卓立 | 责任编辑 | 何梦飞
主编 | 何梦飞 | 图源 | VCG