The new 13 member G Steel board of directors has started January 18th 2013 with Mr. Gen Letrat Ratanavanich succeeding Mr. Vijit Supinit former Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission as the board’s chairman. G Steel founder Mr. Somsak Leeswastrakul is the vice chairman. Mr. Eric Thompson, Managing Director of the Hong Kong based Alix Partners, has been named the new Chief Executive to take charge of the turnaround plan.
Mr. Thompson said “The number one priority now is to get the plant up and running again, the target is to resume a break even manufacturing level of 55 to 60% capacity utilization within the Q2. The assets are good and the operation people have remained with the company. I believe there are many challenges but they are not insurmountable. The market is also there. There is no reason why we can’t.”
Mr. Somsak said that “The company targets to achieve 80 to 90% capacity utilisation this year compared to the average of 20 to 30% in 2012. If so G Steel will be on track to resume profitability. The two companies earned revenue of roughly THB 15B.
