Mazda continues to use Thailand as major production base

BANGKOK, May 12 (TNA) - Japan-based Mazda Motor Corporation has confirmed that Thailand remains its biggest automobile production base in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Hidesuke Takesue, President of Mazda Sales (Thailand) Co, told journalists on Tuesday that Mazda has built an auto part distribution center in Thailand and the facility has served 140 countries worldwide so far, including those in ASEAN and Thailand has, thus, become one of his company's key automobile production locations regionally and globally. Takesue said that recently, Mazda invested in establishing its SKYACTIV-Drive automatic transmission factory in Chonburi Province in the Thai East with its production capacity of 400,000 automatic transmission units per year for AutoAlliance (Thailand) Co and global markets. According to the top executive, it is the first time for Mazda to produce its SKYACTIV automatic transmission outside Japan. (TNA)