Local Truong Hai Automobile Company (Thaco) has rolled out the first made-in-Viet Nam tractor at the agricultural machinery manufacturing factory in the Chu Lai-Truong Hai Industrial Complex after one year of construction.

The factory, which covers an area of 1.2ha with investment of VND500 billion (US$22.1 million), plans to produce 2,000 tractors and 4,000 combine harvesters as well as farming machines and equipment each year.

The Quang Nam-based factory uses technology from Korean LS Mtron company following an agreement signed last year between Thaco and LS Mtron (a company of the LS Group from Korea).

Thaco said the manufacturing factory aimed to provide made-in-Viet Nam agricultural machinery with a 50 per cent localisation programme for domestic use as well as for exports to ASEAN markets.

Doan Dat Ninh, an official from Thaco, said the Thaco-trademark tractor eyed making up 7 per cent of the country’s market share in 2018 before increasing to 38 per cent in 2026.

The local made farming machinery products are also planned to be exported to Laos, Cambodia, the Philippines, Myanmar, Indonesia and other markets.

The introduction of the first agricultural machinery plant in Quang Nam Province would help promote mechanisation of farming in Viet Nam.

In 2013, Thaco also acquired 51 per cent of shares in the Korean Soosung Motor Technology company to produce cranes, concrete mixer trucks and tankers in Korea.

Thaco has manufactured and distributed vehicles of foreign brands – Kia of South Korea, Mazda of Japan, France’s Peugeot and BMW of Germany. — VNS