GM Asks Thailand for Help

By Stephen Wright

BANGKOK -- General Motors(GM), barely staying afloat with the aid of a U.S. bailout, is now seeking funds from Thailand's government and banks to keep its auto business running in the Southeast Asian nation.

The company is asking Thailand's Ministry of Industry and local banks to help fund its one-ton pickup truck manufacturing and planned $445 million diesel engine factory in the eastern seaboard province of Rayong. Thailand is a major production and export hub in Asia for pickup trucks.

"Due to the financial crisis which affects every major automobile manufacturer in every country of the world, our projects are delayed, notably our diesel engine plant at Rayong," Steve Carlisle, president of General Motors Southeast Asia, said in a statement.

"This calls for alternative funding solutions that will allow us to keep up with the progress we need to make," he said.

GM announced ambitious plans last August to invest $445 million to build a diesel engine plant in Thailand and upgrade an existing assembly factory.

The new plant, which would produce engines for small pickup trucks, was slated to begin production in 2010 with an annual capacity of more than 100,000 units. GM had earlier unveiled plans to expand its one-ton pickup manufacturing in Rayong with the introduction of a new model.

Since then the downturn in the U.S. and global car markets has intensified, forcing GM to go cap in hand to the American government for a $13.4 billion lifeline as it teetered on the brink of collapse.