Austrian injection moulding machine maker Engel is placing its confidence in Southeast Asia with the recent set up of a subsidiary company in Thailand, said Gilles Lefevre, Managing Director, Engel Machinery (Thailand).

Speaking at a recent open house organised jointly by Italy-based process cooling equipment supplier Frigel and Engel, Gilles said that firm has a complete organisation in Asia. “We have two subsidiaries now, in Singapore and Thailand, to manage the business in Asia.” Previously, Engel operated a representative office in Thailand. The decision to set up the fully owned subsidiary in Thailand is to “support customers in the region”, said Gilles.

Further support is provided by four process engineers, dedicated to the packaging market, he added. “We will add on a technical sales engineer by September along with three service engineers as the market is growing. And by September also, we will have a host of spare parts supply in Thailand,” he elaborated further.

In Indonesia, Engel is represented by Adijaya Buansantosa, an association the firm has had since 2012, while in the Philippines its agent is C Melchers and in Vietnam, Nhat Viet Technology. “The Asian area generated 18% of the total turnover last year. The market share in Asia based on this turnover is 5% and this is the reason why we are making attempts to provide a proper infrastructure and support for our machine sales.”

In terms of sector growth, the firm views strong growth in the packaging sector, especially in Indonesia, as well as in the automotive sector, which occupies 40% of its global business.

At the open house, it showcased an IML technology on a 160-tonne Emotion, together with Frigel’s chillers; SCS mould; Japanese auxiliary maker Matsui’s PET system; Belgium-based Verstraete’s labels and robots/IML automation from Italian firm Campetella.