Mr. Chuwit Jungtanasomboon, Chief Executive Officer of North East Rubber Public Company Limited (SET: NER), stated that in the third quarter of this year, the company is poised to increase its sales volume from the same period last year and the previous quarter due to the expansion of its customer base. The demand for rubber products has increased, both domestically and internationally, while the company managed to secure orders for the next three months.
As for the fire incident at NER’s warehouse that damaged 2,000 – 3,000 tons of its products, worth about THB 200 million, the company will record the list of products damaged by the fire in an account. Still, in the past two weeks, the company already compensated all of its customers with its rubber products recently manufactured.
Regarding the complete coverage by the insurance, the related government agencies had already examined the area, and the claiming process should be complete in the fourth quarter. NER also ordered a foam fire truck to prevent such incidents from happening in the future.
Mr. Chuwit added that for the rest of the year, NER estimated that the overall market will receive positive factors from the U.S. tariff as the matter’s details become clearer. The U.S. sellers, buyers, and the global region are expected to adjust and prepare for the effect caused by the tariffs. Meanwhile, the recovery of the economy, reflected in the stock market growth, will become a positive factor for NER’s product manufacturing.
As for the negative factors, there is a matter of the Thailand – Cambodia border conflict that occurs near NER’s factory in Buriram province. This incident has affected the rubber supply as it caused the company to increase its purchase proportion of raw rubber from the North East region, increasing the cost marginally. Regarding the trend of replacing rubber trees with durian trees, the company estimated that the trend has slowed down as the durian market is declining.
As for the overall performance this year, NER decided to lower its target slightly due to the conflicts. The company now aims to generate a sales volume of 470,000 tons instead of 500,000 tons and a total revenue of THB 32.5 billion instead of THB 34 billion as projected earlier.
