EMTAN establishes small arms plant in Thailand
The new plant will manufacture the full range of EMTAN’s weapons, according to the requirements of Thai government customers
Israeli company EMTAN, a small arms manufacturer, announced yesterday (Monday) the establishment of a small arms production and assembly plant in Thailand. EMTAN joined the local company SAHAPIPATTHANAKUA and government-owned defense company DTI Thailand, in order to establish a new Thai company, WMI – Weapon Manufacturing Industry. The new company will manufacture the full range of EMTAN’s weapons, according to the requirements of Thai government customers.
EMTAN officials say that for many years, the company has been supplying rifles and pistols to official government bodies in Thailand, and the need to move the assembly and production to Thailand is due to the increase in demand for its products.
Dror Zada, Senior Vice President at EMTAN, told Israel Defense that the company sold tens of thousands of small arms to government officials in Thailand. According to Zada, "After establishing the brand in Thailand, we joined a government company called DTI and a local private company known in the defense field in order to establish a new company under joint ownership. As the ownership is also by the Thai government, we expect to receive many orders under the new WMI brand manufactured by the company in Thailand."
Zada adds that "the great success of EMTAN in Thailand is due to the great reliability of the firearms over the years, fast delivery times and great support from SIBAT (The International Defense Cooperation Directorate of the Israel MoD), which helped us a lot in introducing the brand and exposing EMTAN to government officials in Thailand, as well as DECA (The Defense Export Control Agency), which acted quickly in issuing licenses to transfer knowledge to Thailand."
EMTAN recently signed a number of contracts in Asia, as well as two contracts for the supply of pistols and rifles to Spain.