Toshiba poised to cash in on Asean
TOSHIBA Corporation has seen great business potential in Asean, particularly in the power-generation and social-infrastructure businesses, said Fumio Otani, corporate vice president and corporate representative for Asia.
Otani, who is also managing director of Toshiba Asia Pacific, based in Singapore, said that in addition to its facilities in countries such as China, European nations, the United States and Australia, Toshiba also had facilities in many Asean countries, such as Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia. Some of their products are electrical appliances, semi-conductors, switchgear and power generators. Thailand remains Toshiba’s manufacturing hub for home appliances.
“We have seen Asean as a market with huge business potential. The region is growing at between 5 and 6 per cent on average in GDP. Many countries in Asean have shown greater demand for energy and social-infrastructure products,” he said.
Otani said the company’s footprint in the power-generation business was currently higher than in social infrastructure, which contributes about one-third of Toshiba’s overall portfolio. However, in the future, the growth potential for social infrastructure will be higher. Toshiba is focusing on many such products, including railways, radar systems, weather-forecasting equipment, electric vehicle-management systems and mail-sorting machines.
Toshiba yesterday introduced its energy solutions in Thailand at the three-day “Power Generation Asia” event being held until today at the Impact Exhibition and Convention Centre.
As Thailand continues to experience rapid urbanisation, energy demands have also intensified. Furthermore, issues such as traffic congestion, carbon-dioxide emissions, and water, air and noise pollution persist. There is thus a need for clean and sustainable energy solutions.
“The Thai government wants to promote a good energy balance by increasing capacity as well as [being concerned about] environmental issues,” Otani said. He added that coal was a much cheaper source of energy than alternatives, as a single coal-fuelled power plant could have high capacity. However, renewable energy is also quite important for the country.
“We [Toshiba] are able to respond to the needs of Thailand and Asean by providing power-plant technologies and solutions including environmentally friendly renewable energy such as hydropower, solar and wind. This is in addition to thermal and gas-turbine combined-cycle technologies.”
Toshiba has a comprehensive range of energy solutions to cater to various energy needs worldwide. In Thailand, the company has been contributing to the energy supply through power-plant projects. These include the Rajjaprabha, Sirindhorn and Chulabhorn hydropower projects, and thermal projects such as Glow SPP Phase IV in Laem Chabang and the Amata B Grimm Power projects in Rayong.
“Increasingly, we are trying to promote the use of clean, renewable energy such as solar power. In Japan, Toshiba has the No 1 share in solar power for utilities projects, and there are plans to extend it to markets in Southeast Asia, including Thailand,” Otani said. Toshiba is also contributing to Thailand’s infrastructure development, he said. Last year, Toshiba was awarded a contract to supply rail systems and 10 years of maintenance services for the MRT Purple Line and its rolling stock. The Purple Line is a new commuter railway in Greater Bangkok that is currently under construction. It is expected to start operations next year.
Toshiba says it is working towards a “safe, secure and comfortable society”. Towards this vision, it established a new company last year, Toshiba Asia Pacific (Thailand) Co, to provide resources and expertise for the Kingdom’s infrastructure development.
