When mainly handling imported cargo, some customers want us to arrange a warehouse. Warehouses are used not only just for stocking goods, but also for unloading and light work.
There are many inquiries about Thai warehouses in Japanese people from our website, although I don’t know if there is a high demand from customers of Japanese companies or whether there is simply no information.
I would like to explain about the warehouse situation in Thailand as far as we know.
Current situation of warehouses in Thailand
One of important factors in choosing a warehouse is its location. Stock cargo at optimal locations, depending on the locations of such as ports & airports and destinations & suppliers.
Even if warehouse cost is low, the transportation cost will be high and it is not efficient, if the distance from the delivery destination is far.
Popular warehouse locations in Thailand
As far as I know, in Thailand, cargo is easily collected near Suvarnabhumi Airport, Bangkok Port and Laem Chabang Port.
I think the popular areas are the Amata Nakorn Industrial Estate in Chonburi Province, where many Japanese companies join, and BangNa Trad, which is close to the industrial estate in the Samut Prakan area.
Senior Seagull My collaborator built a warehouse in Amata Nakorn and said it was occupied by cargos immediately.
A relatively empty warehouse locations
On the other hand, there are warehouses with very few cargos. A flood in Thailand in 2011 flooded the area around Ayutthaya in Thailand. As a result, many warehouses were built in the Laem Chabang area in the east.
However, I have an impression that warehouses in the Rayong and Leam Chabang area have still very few cargos due to oversupply.
Senior Cat As same as real estates, popular places will be filled up quickly, but non-popular places will need to attract customers.
Types of warehouses
In a warehouse, various cargos are stored and worked, so a suitable warehouse is required. I’ll explain the various warehouses below.
General warehouse
This is a warehouse, where general cargo is stored. Resin, wood, car parts, etc. In the case of general cargo, there is no function, compared to other warehouses, so services, location, and price should be different from other competitors to get customers.
Senior Cat Some warehouses are different in inspection and packing services!
For customers, who cannot load or unload containers, we may unpack containers at general warehouses and place them on trucks before sending them.
Senior Seagull If customers don’t have a platform, they can’t unload luggage from a container.
Cold Warehouse
I feel that demand for Cold Warehouses has increased in Thailand.
The stalls have been removed since around 2018, so it is expected that demand for frozen foods at convenience stores and supermarkets will increase.
Senior Seagull But there are still plenty of street stores and food stalls. What’ll happen in the future?
We receive requests for frozen seafood and industrial products that require temperature control, so we use Japanese and Thai Cold Warehouses, depending on the situation.
Temperature set room for Cold warehouse
・ -25 degrees
・ 3 degrees to 5 degrees
・ 5 degrees to 10 degrees
・ 15 degrees to 18 degrees
・ 25 degrees, and the like.
Senior Seagull Inspection at the -25 degree freezer was painful…
In Thailand, daytime temperatures generally exceed 30 degrees, so the cargo that needs to be temperature controlled uses Cold Warehouses.
Dangerous Goods warehouse (DG Warehouse)
Dangerous goods, such as chemicals, must be stored in a dangerous goods warehouse. Also, when registering for the import of DG cargo, it is necessary to submit materials and Warehouse to DIW (Department of Industrial Works, Thailand).
It’s a dangerous goods warehouse, so it’s really dangerous. There is often news that dangerous goods burned in ships and warehouses.
I don’t know dangerous goods warehouses in Thailand, which handle Class 4 (flammable substances) and Class 5 (oxidizable substances). However, Japanese customers occasionally ask us to handle these classes of dangerous goods.
Senior Cat We have refused those inquiries politely.
What we can handle are as following:
・ Class 3: flammable liquid
・ Class 6: poison
・ Class 8: corrosive
・ Class 9: others
For dangerous goods other than these classes, we will receive the MSDS and confirm it before making a decision.
Bonded warehouse & Free Zone
Generally, importing cargo involves customs duties and VAT. However, bonded warehouses & Free Zone are used for processing imported cargoes and re-exporting them, etc.
We do labeling, packing, and simple assembly, and we also load containers from other countries and ship containers to third countries.
Basically it is premised on re-export, so it is mainly near the airport and near the port.
Professor Lion In Thailand, there are many processing trades, so there are many opportunities to use bonded warehouses.
When loading cargo from other countries into a container, CFS may be used besides bonded warehouses. We listen to customer requests and suggest how we can make the most efficient logistics arrangement.
Warehouse for B2C
Recently, online shopping has become popular also in Thailand. Lazada and Shopee are famous in Thailand. I also sometimes buy products, which I don’t know where else to buy, at Lazada.
A quick look up revealed that Lazada and Shopee (founded in 2015) were in the red from 2013 to 2017. I heard that fraudulent and not sending items, although paid for them, often happened in Thai mail orders.
Cat & Seagull Surely, a little while ago, we were worried about using an online shop…
The reason that Rakuten withdrew from Thailand in 2016 was probably because the market had not been established yet.
However, in recent years, convenient orders using apps are increasing, such as GrabTaxi / Food and Panda Food, so it seems that online shopping is also common. *This is my subjectivity.
Senior Cat As an aside, once I went to Lazada to propose a truck, but I refused the dealt because they gave me a terribly cheap price.
Even our group companies have plans to start a warehouse on the e-commerce wave.
Carrying heavy goods, such as rice and water, is surely difficult, and shopping without going out is greatly convenient, so it is certain that the market will grow in the future.
Warehouses, where robots work like Alibaba and Amazon, may not yet be introduced in Thailand due to labor costs (because they are cheap). But I think this is also a matter of time.
Conclusion
This time I gave general information about Thai warehouses. At our company, there are still many B2B businesses, so we often use general warehouses, refrigerated warehouses, dangerous goods warehouses, and bonded warehouses, but I think that the warehouse for B2C will eventually become one of the main warehouses.
The location of a warehouse is important anyway. There may not be much information on warehouses in Thailand yet, so if you are looking for various warehouses, please contact us.
