BOI grants privileges for Haier’s Chonburi smart AC factory

The Board of Investment (BOI) has agreed to grant privileges for a Chinese manufacturer to invest 13.4 billion baht in building a factory in Chonburi to produce smart air-conditioners for export.

Narit Therdsteerasukdi, BOI secretary-general, said the agency’s subcommittee in charge of deliberating investment projects has approved Haier Appliance Manufacture (Thailand) Co, Ltd project to set up a factory in Chonburi.

Under the project, Haier will invest 13.4 billion baht in building a new factory covering a 200-rai plot in the WHA Eastern Seaboard 3 industrial estate in Chonburi. The factory should have the capacity to manufacture 6 million smart air-conditioners per year.

Narit said these smart air-conditioners will have sensors that can be linked to smartphones or other smart devices via Wi-Fi connections.
Haier expects the first phase of the factory construction to be completed by September next year, with the initial capacity to come in at 3 million units.

The factory should run at full capacity of 6 million machines by 2027.
Narit said the project will create 3,000 jobs and should export 32 billion baht worth of air-conditioners per year. He added that this will be largest factory for making smart Haier air-conditioners outside of China.

He said Haier had chosen Thailand as its manufacturing base because the country has good basic infrastructure, stable power supply and good logistics.

Narit added that Haier is a Chinese electrical appliances manufacturer with the biggest sales worldwide for 15 consecutive years since 2009, according to Euro Monitor rating.

He said Haier had earlier invested more than 3 billion baht to establish the Haier Electric (Thailand) factory in Prachinburi’s Kabinburi district to manufacturer electric appliances, including refrigerators, washing machines, electric cookers, electric jar pots, and compressors for refrigerators.