Bangkok (Nov. 30, 2006) - Siam Nissan Automobile announced today that it will begin export of the new Nissan Tiida compact sedan and hatchback to Australia on November 30, 2006. This move underscores Nissan's long-term commitment to turn it's Thailand facility into a world-class production hub for exports. The Tiida, to be built at the Nissan Bangna Trad plant located about 20 kilometers east of Bangkok, will be manufactured using up to 75% local parts content and will be the first of Nissans completely built-up (CBU) vehicles to be exported to Australia under the Thai-Australian Free Trade Agreement.
Thierry Viadieu, President of Siam Nissan Automobile, said, "The Tiida export program demonstrates Thailands vision to become a major automotive production hub of Asia. To date, SNA has been exporting small volumes of Nissan Frontier pickups and Tiida hatchbacks to Indonesia, and the expansion of our export program to Australia is confirmation of the highest level of manufacturing quality at our Bangna Trad facility as well as the rapid growth observed in the Thai automotive parts and components industry."
The Tiida export program to Australia will include both hatch and sedan variants powered by Nissan's 1.8-litre DOHC 16-valve engines. SNA expects to export over 15,000 units of Tiida, or the equivalent of 5.8billion Baht (USD150million) in export value, by the end of 2007. "While our plant's current production is running around 46,000 units per year, we are confident that we will increase capacity four-fold as additional new export markets come on line," said Viadieu.
In 2005, SNA had announced an incremental 29billion Baht (USD 757 million) investment to expand and upgrade its existing facility and prepare it for development into a world-class production hub for exports. Expansion and upgrade plans include the addition of new jig robots, tooling, computer systems, expansion of new production and assembly lines, stamping, body and paint shops.
The Bangna Trad plant has adopted the Nissan Production Way (NPW) and Nissan Integrated Manufacturing System (NIMS) that represent the Nissan international standard for manufacturing worldwide. The NPW and NIMS allow Nissan to maintain flexible and integrated manufacturing at supplier, global and logistics levels, and keep lead times short.
"More specifically in Thailand, we have the added benefit of a large skilled automotive workforce, a highly developed parts and components industry, good transport and logistics infrastructure, as well as favorable policies to promote a stronger automotive industry in Thailand. To this end, SNA is fully committed to contribute to the burgeoning growth of Thailand's domestic and export automotive industry," added Viadieu.
Under the three-year Nissan Value-Up business plan, Thailand has been identified as one of the Leading Competitive Countries (LCC) marked for significant growth. In July this year Nissan Motor Company announced the establishment of a Parts Consolidation Center, a new auto-parts export base in Thailand to supply parts to its manufacturing plants worldwide. The auto-parts export base is expected to export about 11. 5 billion baht (USD300 million) worth of parts a year, making it Nissan's second-largest parts exporting base after Japan.
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Siam Nissan Automobile was established in 2004 with two assembly plants located in Bangna Trad Kilometer 21 and 22. Since 2004, SNA has launched 6 models altogether namely - Teana, X-Trail, Murano, Tiida sedan, Tiida hatchback, and Urvan.