From Siam Undiscovered per Jack Eisner 18 Jan 2010
Economic Relations Across Oceans
Siam was a very good outlet for Czechoslovakian goods before World War II. Many representative offices were established in Bangkok, for the Skoda Company imported from Czechoslovakia various machines, tools, paper, enamel goods, glass, china, textile, and shoes. In return Siam supplied Czechoslovakia with rice, natural rubber, tropical wood for the furniture industry, spices, various oils plants and raw materials for the textile industry. The biggest achievement was a sugar refinery in Lampang build by Skoda in 1937.
In the production programme of the Skoda Company, there were some sectors with a long tradition, representing a certain speciality among European producers. One of these was the machinery for processing sugar cane in sugar refineries, which came mainly in crushing and rolling mills. Actually, the first sugar refinery in Thailand was built by the Skoda Company in 1937 in Lampang based on an order from the Ministry of Agriculture. The contract included not only the complete supply of technological equipments for the refinery, but also the building of the refinery's halls and training of staff during the first part of the campaign. The sugar refinery started production in December 1937 in line with the conditions and despite unexpected impediments such as floods of railways, which disabled supplies of materials and equipments for the construction. The processing capacity of the milling equipments was 500 tons of sugar cane per day and two later, in 1939, the capacity increased to 800 tons. The final product was white sugar. Between 1936 and 1938 other supplies followed by imports of tens of cars and vans with the winged arrow mark of Skoda Mlada Boleslav, road rollers, a tower crane for the Royal Navy Dockyard in Bangkok, a steam boiler for a governmental power station, diesel engines, a conduit for steam boilers, etc. Business correspondence of the company from 1938-1939 also remarks upon an interest of the Thai government in materials for artillery, notably a 4 cm fort cannon, model 36. However, business negotiations were interrupted due to the German occupation of Czechoslovakia on 15 march 1939. In 1937, Czechoslovakian export to Thailand was worth 12 million Czk (Czech Crowns) and import 6 million Czk. World War II and political changes in Czechoslovakia in 1948 discontinued business activities for a long period.
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