Message from the Board of Directors

The previous year of 2022 was another good year for the automotive industry, with the total production amounting to 1.87 million vehicles, increased approximately 11% from 2021 with the total production of 1.68 million vehicles. However, automotive production volume was still lower than 3 years before the COVID-19 virus outbreak situation. In the meantime, industry overview of agricultural machinery parts in 2022 decreased, due to the factors of the flood situation during August-October and rising costs of energy and fertilizer resulting in declining demand of agricultural machinery use. The Company turnover of 2022 reached Baht 9,093 million, increased 4.19% from 2021 with net profit amounting to Baht 935 million.

In the past year, there has been several prideful achievements of Somboon Advance Technology Public Company Limited. For instance, the Company has fully operated business for 60 years and is still marching further toward 61st year. In addition, several signifi cant awards were received including the Sustainability Awards of Honor for 5 consecutive years from the Stock Exchange of Thailand and the Quality Improvement Awards Winner from the customer. All of these successes have been accomplished with the devoted participation and support of all employees. In this regard, the Company would like to express gratitude to everyone again. Moreover, it is also a result of the concreate policy planning and sustainability development strategy by focusing on the operations in compliance with the ESG principle.

The ESG principle comprises 3 aspects including
1) Environmental aspect: environmental operations aimed at reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for the long term in which the Company has set the mid-term reduction target at 30% by 2030 from the base year of 2018 through approaches of increased utilization of renewable energy, energy effi ciency and building cooperation with the supply chain to engage in GHG emission reduction or relevant GHG scope.

2) Social aspect: emphasizing the creation of value for oneself, the organization and external society with the aims to create value for the society by 0.1% of income each year and constantly develop human capital to facilitate personnel readiness for coping with change through various projects, such as the continuous development and improvement. Accordingly, the SAT Culture transformation has been initiated to comply with the organizational context and strategy supporting readiness for rapid changes by using the SMART principle. Regarding external society, the emphasis is on creating value collaboratively with the community and government agencies by applying the Creating Shared Value (CSV) business concept. For example, the project of building a prototype of electric three-wheeled vehicle, allowing the disabled to have technological access at reasonable prices. Furthermore, CSR activities are held properly, for example, performing school repairs and maintenance by setting a monitoring target called “the good deed hours”.

3) Governance aspect: Ensure Good Corporate Governance by encouraging inclusive operations with stakeholders, for instance, supporting the anti-corruption in trading partner group continually along with promoting awareness of the organization’s code of conduct among employees.

As for 2023, the automotive industry and agricultural machinery parts industry are estimated to achieve a slight growth despite the national and global challenges, especially in the ESG aspects which impose risk as well as opportunity that the organization needs to stay ready for coping with change. For example, the transition of automotive industry from vehicles powered by internal combustion engines (ICE) to electric vehicles (EV). This shift is happening worldwide as the fact that the global surface temperature must be controlled to not exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius. Consequently the GHG emissions shall be cooperatively reduced in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations, to achieve carbon neutrality according to the readiness level. In the process, Thailand aims to reach carbon neutrality by 2050 and net-zero emissions by 2065. Aside from the environmental aspect, another change involved is the utilization of technology in the organization, such as Internet of Things (IoT) and robotics. All these factors have driven the Company to shift its business direction and be able to adapt to changes to achieve business growth and be competitive in long-term.

Finally, I would like to reaffirm the Somboon Group’s commitment for over 60 years of success in stepping up as the leader in automotive parts manufacturing industry, we still continue to strive for growth and develop our potential to be ready for expansion into new business.