SAT 2H 2009 sales will recover 46% from 1H 2009

Somboon Advanced Technology (SAT) management are bullish about the second half performance, which will strongly recover from the first half. Auto production for 2H09 will rise to 550,000 units, up 43%, from first half, although down 19% yoy and much improved over 1H09 by 46%. SAT will perform better than the auto industry as a whole on orders from Kubota of around Bt250mn for this year. Management targets 2H09 sales of Bt2,558mn, up 46%, from the first half with 90% of new orders confirmed by automakers. The gross margin this year will rise to around 16-20% from 1H09 at 12% on better utilisation in 2H09 around 63-80% from 1H09 at 46-49%.