Having thoughts about where to go next for sourcing products? Have a closer look at Thailand!
With the availability of many manufacturing categories such as; Food and Beverages, Electric & Electronics, Textiles & Garment, and Automotive, Thailand is a great option to explore as your next sourcing destination. And with the benefits of the country’s manufacturing clusters, you can invest confidently in a stable region you might not have considered in the past.
With V-Trust’s extensive understanding of the manufacturing capabilities of Thailand, we’ve prepared a savvy breakdown of the main manufacturing clusters available to consider for your expanding projects.
Why Manufacturing Clusters?
When a country wants to see its manufacturing numbers grow, they have to consider why investors will choose them over other competitive countries. And one of the best advantages a country can have is a manufacturing cluster to entice the investors to choose them. These clusters can easily attract investors by linking manufacturers, suppliers, supporting industries, research and academic institutions, and public and private organizations within the cluster areas. And Thailand believed in this enough to implement the Cluster-based Special Economic Development Zones Policy in 2015.
In short, Thailand has spent the past 7 years focusing on growing these manufacturing regions in every way, to entice you to come and invest. So, let’s highlight some of those main clusters.
Electrical Appliance, Electronic and Telecommunication Manufacturing Clusters in Thailand
If you’re interested in expanding your electrical and electronics catalog or looking for another option to acquire the needed parts for your production, you won’t have to travel too far outside this nation’s capital. The city of Bangkok alone has around 800 factories manufacturing electrical appliances. This comes as a surprise to most buyers who haven’t thought to look in Thailand’s direction before. And as larger companies continue to invest in Thailand for electric, telecommunication, and electronics manufacturing, this cluster continues to grow larger outside of the big city’s borders.
There are currently 7 provinces neighboring Bangkok in the middle region of Thailand producing EL products which have accounted for over $42 billion of exports in 2021. Making this the largest manufacturing cluster by value.
Thailand is well known for its manufacturing of hard disk drives (HDDs), telecommunication equipment, cables, integrated circuits and parts for computers, HDDs, diodes, transistors, semiconductors, and capacitors.
Automotive Manufacturing Clusters in Thailand
As one of Thailand’s strongest production reputations, its Automotive Manufacturing Cluster can’t be overlooked. Sharing the same 7 provinces as the Electric and Electronics Manufacturing Cluster, these two sectors work hand in hand, as the continuous advancement of technologies keeps them working together. It’s challenging to find a major carmaker or auto parts manufacturer who isn’t already producing in this region. And as more and more companies invest in R&D and technical facilities, it’s not likely this cluster will be shrinking any time soon.
The county’s total export value of automotive products came to around $41.4 billion in 2021.
Food and Beverage Manufacturing Clusters in Thailand
As the most expansive cluster we discuss in this article, the Food and Beverage manufacturing regions stretch over almost 50% of the country, from the very southern regions of Songkla to the far north in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai. With Thailand’s rich agricultural export history of raw material food products as well as processed food products, this sector contributed to a quarter of the country’s GDP in 2021 at over $34.6 billion.
Major food exports include rice, canned tuna, sugar, chicken meat, cassava products, shrimp, and canned pineapple. However, the country has countless products from all parts of the food pyramid. And with primary regions of raw materials as follows:
- Northern Region (vegetables and fruits, herbal products)
- Northeastern Region (livestock, tapioca, sugar cane, maize)
- Lower-Central Region (sugar cane, pineapple, rubber)
- Eastern Region (fruits, rubber)
- Southern Region (palm, seafood, rubber)
Textiles and Garment Manufacturing Clusters in Thailand
If you were to look at Thailand’s Textiles and Garment Cluster on a map, you could easily think of it as the country’s waist belt. The 9 main provinces in this cluster stretch from the western to the eastern borders of central Thailand, with the country’s capital right in the middle. Many are familiar with Thailand’s historic background of silk, but this cluster offers many sourcing options such as the following:
- Fibers (Polyester, Acrylics)
- Yarns (Cotton, Man-made Yarn)
- Fabrics (Silk, Spandex)
- Finished Apparel (Jeans, Womenswear, Menswear, Undergarments, Sportwear)
- Non-Apparel (Bedding, Curtains, Carpets, Bathroom Textiles)
- Technical Textiles (Mobiltex, Protective Textiles, Medtex, Agrotex)
- Nanotechnology Textiles (Anti-bacterial Textiles)
With $6.7 billion of apparel and textile materials exported in 2021, this country shouldn’t be overlooked when considering your next textile or garment sourcing location.
V-Trust Quality Control Services in Thailand
As Thailand’s competitive position in the manufacturing world continues to flourish, our QC presence in the country remains constant. V-Trust provides many services to benefit your supply chain, including pre-shipment inspections, during production inspections, production monitoring, factory audits, social audits, container loading supervisions, and more.
For more information about quality control or supplier evaluation services in Thailand, email us at info@v-trust.com, or visit our website at www.v-trust.com.
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