ABOUT TPA

Message from Chairman

As my first report as chairman for the Thai Poly Acrylic Public Company Limited (TPA board) I want to first thank all Company’s shareholders, customers, and stakeholders for their
continued trust and confidence in the board and management team during the year; and in particular to thank the Company’s management team and employees for their support and efforts
through 2023. I also want to thank my predecessor, Dr. Benjamin Harris for putting in place and establishing much of the operational and business processes in the early part of 2023
which allow the TPA’s team to continue and focus on business recovery onto a positive profitable track in the second half of 2023.


2023 has been a year of re-organising ourselves internally in TPA, focusing on both bottom line operational efficiency, effectiveness and top line recapturing of domestic and export markets.
To this end, the managing director, Dr. Surajin Tappanchai and his senior management team has been instrumental
in formulating a renewal business strategy focused on driving productivity improvements, promoting the new products/new markets (innovation), enhancing work processes, tight
working capital control and streamlining our supply chain management to turn “TPA into a stable profitable growth business in 2023 and with foundations built for a good company”.
I am pleased to say that whilst 2022 saw the Company in negative profitability territory for the first time in the preceding 5 years, the Company has managed, with the effort of
the management team and employees to turn around the business back into positive profitability for the full year 2023 albeit, at a significantly reduced level compared to forecast.
 

Generally, the domestic economy had remained weak for most of the year, registering an overall 1.9% for 2023, well below the forecast of 3.2% and slipping further from previous year
of 2.5% growth. 2023’s growth rate performance highlights the weak global demand that affected most of Southeast Asia's export-oriented economies. Annual GDP figure for most
SEA economies all showed slower growth last year due to the global slowdown amid central banks' monetary tightening and a slump in China, the biggest trade partner for many countries
in the region. Given the above, government stimulus programs with consensus on monetary policies, infrastructure investment programs and domestic consumption will be key to
revitalising the economy.


Overall, the Company generated total sales revenue in 2023 of Baht 800 Million which was a marginal 4% increase over last year (Baht 759 Million). However net profit increased significantly from 2022 performance of -21 Million Baht to 12 Million Baht. This increase was principally as a result of a weaknesses in the major raw materials prices (MMA price had decreased by 18% compared to 2022) coupled with improvement of sales volumes (8.0 kMT in 2023 vs. 7.1 kMT in 2022) and operating cost control measures. Additionally, the refocusing of our commercial team on exports markets allowed TPA’s export business to improve significantly from Q2 onwards with new customers for our cast sheet products in the Middle East, India, Americas and ANZ regions, whilst domestically TPA managed to capture some new customers in the second half of the year. The extrusion business continued to be unfavourable owing to slow demand from domestic customers, lower sales in the automotive segments and from traditional South-East Asia markets.

Anti-corruption and good-governance remain a focus of the Board of directors and management. The Company continues to maintain and strengthen its governance and internal control processes and to ensure these are compliant with statutory requirements and general ESG (Environment, Social and Governance) expectations.

Looking into year 2024, the uncertainties in the external environment continues from 2023 into 2024, coming from geopolitical situations, trade tensions, China’s economic recovery and inflationary cost. Logistical cost pressure as a result of the restrictions in the global container freight route due to the on-going conflict in the middle east and eastern Europe has seen cost pressure coming back onto our export businesses. Thailand’s economy in 2024 is still recovering slowly and growing below expectations, and is projected to expand in the range of 2.2 – 3.2% improving from 2023’s 1.9%. Challenges remains domestically as 2023 saw some consolidations of our major domestic competitors but at the same time provided TPA opportunities to improve our market share and portfolios. The Company expects that the price of key raw materials (MMA in particular) is unlikely to remain low, as was in 2023, given the supply /demand imbalance foreseeable in 2024. Price competition for TPA product range especially in the domestic markets is expected to remain strong given the strong suppliers base domestically and increased competition from other Asian manufacturers. The management team had worked on a comprehensive budget for 2024, building in new markets, new products strategies for growth, export business expansion and a clear month-to-month monitoring/ remedial actions management process as part of the overall 2024 budget plan to strengthen and grow both domestic and international businesses.

In conclusion, 2023 has been a business recovery year for TPA in a rather challenging domestic and international business environment. The management team has pulled together a challenging but well thought out and committed annual plan for 2024 and this has been approved by the board. The annual plan will continue the recovery of the TPA businesses onto historical steady profitability and this will require the business strategies and improvements identified to be implemented and benefits delivered to our stakeholders.

On behalf of the Board of Directors, I would like to restate my thanks to the Company’s shareholders, customers, and stakeholders for their support.

Finally, and importantly, I would like to thank the Company’s management and employees for their great efforts, particularly in supporting and bringing on the internal operations process changes, formulating and executing the renewal strategy in a cohesive manner; and their continued hard work throughout the year to operate the plant safely and reliably to ensure customers can continue to be reliably supplied with cost competitive, high quality products.

Mr. Tok Chee Ming
Chairman of the Board of Directors