Auto parts suppliers in Thailand are preparing for any potential surge in water levels as the flooding crisis in the country continues to wreak enormous damage.
The Thai Industry Ministry told just-auto earlier today (26 October) there were up to 3,000 suppliers in the country employing around 300,000 people, but many staff have not been able to travel to work because of the escalating floods that are estimated to reach up to 3m deep in some cases.
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Thai supplier Fortune Parts Industry (FPI) said it was moving its goods to higher ground in a bid to beat encroaching waters, with shifting the stock a priority for the company. Some of its employees have also been stranded by the rising floods.
“We are moving them [goods] to a higher level – that will take maybe I think the whole evening,” FPI sales exports officer Kenny Lam told just-auto from the factory around 20km from Bangkok and whose plant has already shored up its defences with more concrete walls.
“The water is not coming yet, but we are preparing ourselves just in case – the water might be up to the waist. The people are [making] preparations – we are moving everything to the higher level.”
Lam estimated the flooding was “coming, not far, it is about 2-3km away,” with pictures from the Thai government showing citizens wading waist-high through streets flooded with water.
Yesterday (25 October), the authorities opened sluice gates in the Thai capital in a bid to ease chronic flooding that could see the city faced with severe water problems for the next one to two months.
FPI manufacturers body parts as well as plastics and chrome plating mainly for export around the world and is located in the Lamlukka district near Bangkok.
The Thai Industry Ministry earlier told just-auto it estimated factories might re-open around mid-November as the water levels subsided.
