Furukawa Battery to Expand Thai Output Capacity by 15%

Furukawa Battery expands Thai lead battery production capacity step by step. The firm increases the capacity by 15% to 3.8 million units in 2013 from 2010 level through around 1.5 billion yen of expansion to meet growing demand in Southeast Asia. The subsidiary, Siam Furukawa in Thailand supplies around 60% of the products for domestic buyers and exports balance of the products for Southeast Asia and Middle East. The firm made around 3.3 million units of products for vehicle and motorcycle in 2010. The production is around 3.1 million units in 2011 due to slow demand after Thai flood. The firm expects the production increases to 3.7 million units in 2012 and 3.8 million units in 2013. Furukawa Battery targets more than 30% of offshore sales by fiscal 2013 ending March 2014 under the 3-year plan. Siam Furukawa represents major part of 4.723 billion yen of consolidated offshore sales of Furukawa Battery in April-September, which was 24.8% of total sales. Furukawa Battery targets 2.8 billion yen of operating profit with 47 billion yen of consolidated sales for fiscal 2013 compared with 3.385 billion yen of operating profit with 43.2 billion yen of sales in fiscal 2010. The firm tries to improve the financial strength targeting more than 7.3% of return on assets.