COMPONENTS maker Ingress Corp Bhd is setting up its third plant in Thailand, spurred by the robust automarket in the country.

     Executive vice-chairman Rameli Musa said its two existing plants in Rayong were already running at full capacity and the company was now looking at putting up another facility in Ayuthia, north of Bangkok.

    "We have already identified a site for the project, costing about RM4mil, but are still doing all the financials for the plant construction and equipment purchase," he told StarBiz in an interview."

     In Thailand, Ingress owns Ingress Autoventures, Co Ltd (IAV), a joint venture with Katayama Kogyo Co Ltd and Mitsubishi Corp. 

     He said the Ayuthia plant would produce door sash for Honda, whose production of the new Civic would start next year.
   
    "We have to be located in Ayuthia to be near the Honda plant," he said, adding that the contract for the Civic door sash was estimated to be RM8mil annually.

     Another new contract secured by IAV in Thailand is for the mouldings and door sashes for Mitsubishi's P-Car, due to start production in 2006.
    
     "The contract is worth RM18mil," he said.

     Rameli said the Thai operation was heading for another busy year judging from the country's total production forecast of 900,000 cars this year.

      Of the 900,000 cars, total industry volume (TIV) is expected to hit 590,000 (90,000 units are from completely built-up-CBU-imports) and 400,000 are export.

      Last year, Thailand produced 753,000 cars, whereby 533,000 were TIV and 235,000 were for export. Other than the Civic, IAV also supplies door sashes for the Honda City and Jazz and mouldings for the Accord.

      In Malaysia, the prospects are equally encouraging with the higher TIV of about 425,000 units expected this year.

      "We would expect the figure to remain at that level in the near future, but national car market share is expected to decline as the market opens up," he said.

      He added that to improve business locally, Ingress had introduced new products as well as getting new foreign clients.

      Ingress recently secured a RM8mil contract to produce heat shields to Proton's Gen2 and Waja models.

      "This is a new component made by us, and we also hope to start supplying the heat shields to car assemblers in Thailand and Indonesia," he said. New contracts (for the three markets) received recently amounted to about RM80mil.

      Rameli said Ingress was still negotiating with Proton Holdings Bhd on the supply of components for the SRM (Satria Replacement Model ) and the TRM ( Tiara Replacement Model ).

      As for Perusahaan Otomobil Kedua Sdn Bhd (Perodua), Rameli said Ingress would start supplying stamping parts for the Asean car - a new Perodua models with a new engine capacity. Reports said that the predecessor to this Asean car had made its debut in Tokyo a month ago, launched simultaneously by Daihatsu and Toyota.

      The supply to Perodua for this Asean car would start next year.

      Rameli said the Asean car offered huge potential and would guarantee Ingress revenue of RM40mil per annum based on the letter of intent.

      Ingress has also secured orders from Toyota, a coveted customer and a major global player in the automotive industry. The contract will initially involve the supply of 24 moulding parts, with estimated revenue of RM1.2mil per annum.

      In Indonesia, Ingress, through subsidiary PT Ingress Malindo Ventures, started operations early this year making mouldings for Mitsubishi FE-T commercial trucks and door sashes for Suzuki vehicles - contracts worth RM3mil.