VEM, which is owned by German entrepreneur Mark Weinmann, opened the facility in Rayong, Thailand, in late 2008 because it was seeing increasing orders from that country’s automotive sector but found a lack of mold makers there, said Jeffrey Carroll, vice president of sales and engineering in the firm’s Califon, N.J., office.

“There are so many toolbuilders in Shenzhen but in Thailand there are not a lot,” he said, speaking in a June 26 interview at the company’s booth at the NPE2009 trade fair in Chicago.

The company employs 65 people at a 50,000 square foot Rayong plant, which is focused on large part mold making.

Global automakers, including Ford Motor Co. and General Motors, have factories near the company’s Rayong plant.

VEM employs about 200 at its Chinese mold making and electronics assembly plant in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, with about 60 percent of those tools exported to North America and Europe. The Shenzhen plant has focused on precision parts like electronics, Carroll said.

The firm began as a mold trading company but established the Shenzhen plant five years ago to improve its quality control.