Thailand has been ranked fourth in a new research report of the world’s top manufacturing locations.
Global real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield’s Manufacturing Index 2014 looked at factors that are likely to affect the successful operations of production facilities in the 30 countries with the largest manufacturing output, according to United Nations Trade and Investment. The main aim of the report is to illustrate what parameters manufacturers need to consider when evaluating the most suitable locations to expand or relocate.
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In the report three principal areas – costs, risks and conditions – were analysed. Factors including logistics, the likelihood of natural disaster, economic risk and energy and labour costs were taken into consideration and individually weighted to create an illustration for comparison.
The index took the example of a company with highly mechanised operations, which generally requires unskilled labour, operating within a multi-regional market for a single finished product. These types of companies typically target a growing urban population and consider sustainability to be an important factor. All countries were ranked using this example as a benchmark, and the category weightings reflected these requirements.
Malaysia, which came top, scored particularly well in the costs and risks categories. Taiwan placed second with South Korea in third and Thailand in fourth. The largest manufacturing country in the world, China, is well positioned in fifth overall, performing strongly in terms of costs, but the nation falls short of the top spot due to its weak score in the risk category.
Cushman & Wakefield’s Richard Middleton, Executive Managing Director, Asia Pacific, Corporate Occupier & Investor Services, said: “Asia-Pacific continues to be at the forefront of the global manufacturing sector, and this is highlighted by the top five countries in the index all being located in the region. Furthermore, locations such as Vietnam and the Philippines are also anticipated to emerge over the next few years as notable manufacturing destinations.”
The highest ranking country from the Americas is Canada in sixth place. This was largely due to its position as the least risky location of all of the 30 countries surveyed. The U.S. and Mexico also ranked highly in the table, finishing ninth and 10th respectively.
Mark Wanic, Head of Occupier Services in the Americas at Cushman & Wakefield, said: “The Americas account for almost a third of the top 10 positions in this year’s index, which is testament to the draw of the region for global manufacturers. Manufacturing continues to expand in the U.S. and this will help to drive the wider region forward in terms of growth.”
From an EMEA perspective, Russia and Turkey led the way in seventh and 11th position respectively. Turkey in particular is a developing location in terms of manufacturing and there are a growing number of companies choosing to locate there.
Andrew Batt, International Group Editor of PropertyGuru Group,
wrote this story. To contact him about this or other stories email andrew@propertyguru.com.sg
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