Autoneum has founded the company Summit & Autoneum Ltd. in Thailand together with automotive supplier Auto Interior Products. Summit & Autoneum combines Autoneum’s technologies and global customer relationships with access to the partner’s established manufacturing capacities. It provides light vehicle manufacturers in the emerging market of Thailand with innovative and high-performance solutions for acoustic and thermal management.

The acquisition and technical fulfillment of orders as well as selling components and systems for acoustic and thermal management to non-Japanese light vehicle manufacturers in Thailand enables Autoneum to expand its customer portfolio and tap the potential of the growing Thai automotive market. Summit & Autoneum has already received first enquiries for new business. Serial parts will be produced in the existing plant of the partner, Thai automotive supplier Auto Interior Products (AIP), in Rayong.

Thailand is a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and due to the ASEAN free trade area a key production site for automobile manufacturers in Asia. In 2012, over 2.4 million light vehicles were produced in Thailand, and growth to 3 million is forecast for 2019. “In the ASEAN region, Summit & Autoneum gives us direct access to a key emerging market. It enables us to sustainably strengthen our position in Thailand and, as a result, in Asia,” Autoneum CEO Martin Hirzel underlined on the occasion of the signing of the contract.

Auto Interior Products (AIP) is a subsidiary of Summit Auto Seats Industry (SAS). Together with SAS and the partner Nihon Tokushu Toryo (Nittoku), Autoneum has already been operating a company called SRN Sound Proof in Thailand since 2007 for supplying the Japanese light vehicle manufacturers present there. Due to strong customer demand, the production capacity of SRN Sound Proof’s plant in Chonburi was just recently enlarged substantially.