Forward View


availability of workforce and close proximity to the growing marketplace,” Weng Chong says.


Petrochemicals


Thailand is positioning itself as the Detroit of Southeast Asia with production of cars and pickup trucks both for local consumption and for export, while the south of the country has a growing petrochemical industry. Malaysia is also experiencing growth in its agricultural sector due to continued strong demand for its palm oil. While automotive manufacturers in most Western markets


continue to struggle, their subsidiaries in India have fared considerably better. “India is becoming a hot spot for small cars,” says Dinesh


Pawar, General Manager of Trelleborg Automotive India, whose factory near Delhi produces anti-vibration systems for Maruti Suzuki, Toyota and Ford, among others. “The OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) are


now targeting the rural market and getting a good response. Banks are offering good interest rates to buyers, and this is contributing to a boom in sales.” Car sales were up 8.3 per cent in June, and India’s GDP


growth is expected to slip from last year’s 6.5 per cent to about 5 or 6 per cent this year, before returning to around 7 per cent in 2010. Such growth rates have kept up optimism in the world’s


biggest democracy.


“Population-wise, South and Southeast Asia comprise some very large countries.”


Peter Nilsson,


Trelleborg President and CEO Photo: Lasse Davidsson, Trelleborg


Tan says the region has benefited from the fact that many


governments there have learned the lessons of the past. “The governments have enough reserves and are putting


up stimulus packages, so there is more confidence here now than there was during the financial crisis of 1997,” he says. “Everyone is optimistic that this current crisis too will pass, and when it does we will come up stronger than ever. This is a good opportunity for Trelleborg. Our market share is small in Asia today, but if you capture market share in a growing market, the potential is tremendous. We are very well positioned, as our technology gives us a competitive edge in the region.”


Dynamic environment


Fig. 2. Leg mating units are frequently used during offshore installations.


Photo: Trelleborg AB “We recently had elections, and the people are expecting


a lot from the government,” Pawar says. “People realise that we are lacking in infrastructure, and the government is focusing on bringing it up to the next level. Better roads and infrastructure will help the automotive industry.” Pawar expects Trelleborg to benefit in turn. “For Trelleborg India, the coming years will be good.” Kay Jin Tan is overseeing Trelleborg Engineered Systems’


latest investment in China, a production facility in Qingdao. “We are moving up the value chain and providing more


value in our products and solutions,” he says. “In the past we made products that we sold more or less


as a commodity. What we provide now is more engineering content.”


“Population-wise, South and Southeast Asia comprise some very large countries,” says Peter Nilsson, Trelleborg President and CEO. “Western companies seem to appreciate the potential of India, but many of those companies seem to underestimate the other countries as markets. Trelleborg does not, and I would say that almost all of our solution segments have an interesting future in this rapidly developing part of the world.” Following this logic, where market potential is just as


important as low production costs, Trelleborg has invested heavily to increase company presence in Asia, as well as in Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe since Nilsson became CEO in 2005, and the trend looks set to continue. This development has gradually changed the historically


strong company focus on Western Europe and North America, and thereby the Trelleborg global footprint. “South and Southeast Asia make up a very dynamic


entrepreneurial environment,” says Nilsson. “Our strategy is to grow here with local management and personnel resources. An important element in this process is high education levels.


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