Mar. 20--The Board of Investment (BoI) has approved privileges for 51 projects with a total value of 21.29 billion baht, according to Hiranya Suchinai, an adviser to the BoI. The approvals included:

--NHK Spring (Thailand), a manufacturer of hard disk parts with yearly capacity of over 88 million units for export to China, plans an expansion project worth 1.35 billion baht.

--Toshiba Consumer Products (Thailand) will increase its washing machine production capacity by 700,000 units with an investment of 328 million baht. The project is a relocation from Japan in a bid to save costs.

--Thai Oil Power, a subsidiary of the listed refiner, plans steam turbine capacity expansion worth 300 million baht.

--PTT NGD will invest 290 million baht to extend its pipelines to increase gas feed by 11,750 million cubic feet per day to customers in the Eastern Seaboard.

Out of the approved projects, 38 were expansions worth a total of 15.9 billion baht while new projects were worth 5.392 billion. The machinery industry had the highest investment value at 5.38 billion baht followed by services and infrastructure worth 4.5 billion.

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