BANGKOK -- Japanese machinery supplier Sodick Co. Ltd. has recovered from the 2011 flooding that damaged its plant in Thailand.
The company had opened an injection press factory in the Bangkok metro area in March 2011, but it was forced to shut the plant down in October when monsoons flooded the area.
The latest step in the recovery: The Feb. 1 opening of a 94,000-square-foot, $17.2 million factory in Bangkok that will make machine castings for Sodick's electrical discharge machines and for its injection presses.
Yokohama-based Sodick said in a news release that the Thai operations have been completely refurbished following damage from the flood.
The company's original factory in Bangkok now is used for assembly. The new factory was built on higher ground to avoid the risk of future flooding, the company said in a news release.
Peter Capp, CEO of Sodick Europe Ltd. in Coventry, England, called the new plant, "Bigger, better and even more impressive," in the news release.
The company said the plant will support existing Sodick factories in Japan and China.
"Sodick's major investment in the Thai plant affirms the corporation's strategy of establishing a strong and flexible production network, minimizing the risk of geopolitical disturbance to its aim of delivering the highest quality products to customers around the world, the company said in the release.
