Bangkok  - China's home-appliances giant Haier on Thursday opened a new 170-million-baht (4.9-million-dollar) factory in Thailand to produce air conditioners for the domestic and export markets, company sources said.

The new factory, situated in Prachin Buri, 70 kilometres north-east of Bangkok, has a capacity to produce 500,000 air conditioners a year, of which 30 per cent will target the local market and 70 per cent will be exported to Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia.

Haier, a leading manufacturer of home appliances in China, already has two factories in Thailand producing washing machines and refrigerators, which it picked up as part of its 500-million-dollar takeover of Japan's Sanyo Universal Electric in 2007, reported The Nation newspaper.

Xu Yunqiang, project leader for Haier Electrical Appliances (Thailand), said the company planned to become the market leader in Thailand by the year 2011.

"I used to be president of Haier's operation in Pakistan," Yu told The Nation. "We took six years to become the market leader (in Pakistan), with a 20-per-cent share ... but for Thailand, we wish to take only four years to be the leader in the market."

Besides its three factories in Thailand, Haier also has production plants in Algeria, Bangladesh, India, Jordan, Morocco and is currently building a new factory in Venezuela. (dpa)