Due to the rapid growth in vehicle production and airbag fitment rates in Asia, Autoliv Inc. is building an airbag manufacturing plant in Thailand.
The new facility will be located adjacent to Autoliv’s current airbag facility in Chonburi, east of Bangkok.
Autoliv will investment $3 million in the plant which will become operational in September of this year.
Forecasted airbag module volume in 2013 is 1.5 million units with volume expected to increase to 3.5 million units by 2015.
This represents a 10% increase in Autoliv’s Asian airbag manufacturing capacity of 32 million in 2012.
Autoliv expects further increase in airbag fitment rates as the new The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN ) NCAP program, a new car assessment program, takes effect in the coming years.