Some Thai auto parts supplier staff are having to sleep in factories as the country’s relentless flooding leads to fuel shortages.
Thai suppliers are still desperately engaged in a battle against the elements to secure plants as the country’s massive flooding – so far estimated to have cost US$13bn – shows no signs of abating.
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Government offices have shut down in Bangkok with the administration also declaring a five-day national holiday in a bid to allow citizens to protect businesses and homes.
The Thai army and navy has been mobilised to build levees and protect pressure points along the river in Bangkok, but a wider fallout has been the lack of petrol as well as food and water shortages as supermarkets run out of produce.
“The water is rising today – yesterday it was up to the knees and today it is up to trouser level,” Fortune Parts Industry export sales officer Kenny Lam told just-auto from his body parts factory near Bangkok. “We carried important things like electrical [goods] to the upper level.
“We use sandbags and a water pump to pump water out of the factory. We think we should decide about closing tomorrow [28 October] but some of us are still coming because we need to check water levels…to see if we need more sandbags. Some of the staff are staying in the factory because their homes are flooded.”
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By GlobalDataFortune Parts manufactures body parts as well as plastics and chrome plating mainly for export around the world and is located in the Lamlukka district near Bangkok, but up to 60% of its staff are unable to travel to work because of the rising floods and petrol shortages.
Although sandbags have not increased in price, there is pressure on food and water costs as supermarkets have rapidly emptied of stock, leading to a search for essentials elsewhere.
Lam added some estimates put the flooding as lasting for two to three months, with the Thai government announcing a raft of measures today including soft loans available for industry affected by the flooding.
A significant number of international vehicle manufacturers as well as myriad auto suppliers – around 3,000 employing some 300,000 people – are located in Thailand, but production as well as transport to ports has taken a severe battering.
“Many of the trucks can’t come here, so it is difficult to make our shipments,” said Lam. “Normally before this disaster, in month we have around 70-80 shipments, 70-80 containers.
“We are not produce [ing] goods. Now everybody is busy about this flooding – everybody is busy protecting machines such as injection machines for plastic body parts. We are using foam, plastic bags, sandbags, everything to protect us from the water – we have many thousands of sandbags.”
According to Lam, the situation is “chaos,” although it appears Fortune Parts’ customers have been understanding given the extreme nature of the situation.
“All the hypermarkets and 7-11 [convenience stores] are finished, food and water sales are finished,” said Lam. “We need to go far and wide – food is quite expensive.
“Petrol is also finished because no-one comes here in tankers – it is quite chaos – we have never experienced this before.”
