The board, at its meeting on Wednesday, approved a Bt400-million investment plan for the Ratchaburi plant. Corrugated sheet board and corrugated container capacity will be increased by 40,000 tonnes and 10,000 tonnes per annum, respectively.

However, the board changed the expansion plan for the company's Navanakorn plant.

Earlier, management proposed investing Bt700 million to expand the annual production of sheet boards to 80,000 tonnes and corrugated containers to 10,000 tonnes.

The SCC board has now reduced its planned investment to Bt450 million, for an expansion of only 25,000 tonnes for sheet-board capacity. Expanded production is scheduled to start in the middle of 2008.

Meanwhile, the board approved the plan to increase the Khon Kaen plant's capacity with an investment of Bt320 million. Production should begin in the middle of 2009.

Annual capacity for corrugated sheets and corrugated containers will be raised by 55,000 tonnes and 22,000 tonnes, respectively, to satisfy the growing demand for the products in the Northeast, Kan said in the statement.

The board also approved a plan to expand the company's building-material production. SCC will invest about Bt1.25 billion on fibre-related products, which will replace and enhance the existing range of traditional products. Of the total, Bt880 million will be used to produce 17 million square metres of wooden plank and "Smartboard" tiles annually, with commercial production scheduled to start in the middle of 2008.

The investment - in Saraburi and Nakhon Si Thammarat - will increase SCC's total capacity to 46 million square metres per year. The remaining Bt370-million investment will be used to expand the production of roofing tiles in Saraburi. Capacity will be increased by 9 million square metres a year, and commercial production

is scheduled to start by the end of  next year.