STA Ups Block Rubber Capacity by 140,000 Tons at Phitsanulok and Sakon Nakhon Plants Showcasing Automation Technologies to Boost Production Potential
Sri Trang Agro-Industry Pcl. (STA), the world’s leading producer and distributor of integrated natural rubber products and Thailand’s largest producer of latex gloves, is pressing ahead with capacity boost to produce 140,000 tons more of block rubber at its plants in Phitsanulok and Sakon Nakhon. This pushes the total capacity to 2.96 million tons a year, made possible by a new automation technology to raise yield.
Mr. Veerasith Sinchareonkul, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of Sri Trang Agro-Industry Public Company Limited (STA), reveals that the company’s plan to boost production at its existing plants in Phitsanulok and Sakon Nakhon by 140,000 tons a year (70,000 tons each) has been accomplished. The result is that the company’s total production capacity for all rubber products has increased to 2.96 million tons a year. The project is part of the investment plan to ramp up production of block rubber in 14 existing plants in the northern, northeastern and southern regions.
The company’s operational distinctiveness that leads to the production increase at its two plants is its introduction of an automation system. The system covers all phases of production from raw material acquisition to rubber drying, grading, quality inspection and packaging. This is part of a company commitment to upgrading its production facilities with state-of-the-art technologies, which should result in significant lessening of labor and increasing per-person production ratio. As of the end of 2021, a ratio of 23 tons per person per year was achieved. The target for 2024 is to boost that ratio to 35 tons per person per year, or an increase of just over 50%.
What motivates the company to raise production capacity is an opportunity to increase sales and market share of the rubber industry in Thailand as well as in the global market. Global recovery has only just begun and the price of TSR20 block rubber in the Singapore Exchange is favorable at 175 cents a kilogram. This reflects a strong industry demand, which will have a positive impact on the world economic recovery. At the same time, the transition of the auto industry from internal combustion to electric vehicles is expected to push up new car sales and as a result push up demand for tires.
“We are going forward with ramping up block rubber production. Between the second and fourth quarters of this year, we’ll have four new plants, one each in Bung Kan, Kalasin, Sa Kaew, and Trang. All four of them will help push our capacity up by 490,000 tons a year. By the end of this year, our production capacity for all rubber products will increase to 3.45 million tons per year. This will contribute to our goal of increasing our global market share to 12% from 10% at the end of last year,” Mr. Veerasith says.
