Jute industry Thailand is an agre-industry which uses jutes as raw materials. And the products are jute bags which use in containing agricultural products. Before B.E.2495, Thailand used to import jute bag from India and Pakistan. After B.E.2495 jute mills were established in Thailand under government support. The number of jute mills were increasing and jute products were also increasing at a high rate, So the quantity of jute goods in Thailand is now exceeding the normal demand of internal consumption. Later, it become the industry for exporting. The jute mill companies had to compete each other to export their products. While the cost of production is increasing, the export price maintains low in order to survive the foreign market. Many company could not tolerate the heavy loses and had to withdraw from business. This thesis intends to study into financial status of the producers in the whole industry by analyzing status which is publicly revealed in order to find out the cost of production, efficiency of making profit, the debt ratio, and the tendency of jute industry in the future. Moreover, it is aimed to study into the general situation of the jute industry for the future use of those who are interested in it and for the investors who are deciding to invest in this kind of industry. There are 14 factory of jute mills in Thailand, 3 of which are state enterprises and the rest are privately owned. The mills are situated in the central and northeastern part of the country. Raw materials are jute and kenaf which are about 200,000 metrictons annually. The average price of raw material is about 4-4.50 baht per kilogramme which depends largely on the quantity of jute plants, 90 percent of labour force are women and they require 30,544 workers per year. Rate of production is now exceeding the domestic demands and has to be exported at he losing price. Because the cost of production of standard rice bag is about 14.00-15.00 baht per bag but the local market price is about 13.50-14.50 baht per bag and the export price is only 11.00-12.50 baht per bag. Firstly, the producers try to increase their local sales as much as possible by cutting the selling price in order to gain market share. The producers have endeavored to solve such problems by forming a jute goods producer group to cooperate in stabilize the price. But it could run for a short period due to the violention of rules by some producers. The competition in the foreign markets are also tough. Among these competitors are India, Bangladesh and China. The situation of the jute industry and jute market is rather obscure. The analysis of the financial aspect of jute industry in Thailand during B.E. 2519-2522 by calculating financial ratio which derive from financial statements of this industry. The analysis consists of four characters as follows (1) analyzing financial ratios of every company in this industry by deviding into large, medium and small size (2) finding average financial ratios of each size (3) finding average financial ratio of the industry (4) studying the trend of financial ratio in order to compare the movement of financial ratio of each company, with the average ratio of each group of companies and compare with the whole industry. In analyzing and comparing of this industry, there are 9 companies for analyzing and calculating in 4 kinds of financial ratios i.e, liquidity ratio, leverage ratio, efficiency ratio and profitability ratio which in each kind of ratios can be devided into 15 ratios appropriately. In our analysis of financial status of the companies in each size we found that liquidity ratio of large size companies is lower than those of medium size but higher than those of small size, leverage ratio of large size is higher than those of medium size, efficiency ratio of large size is lower than those of medium size but higher than those of small size, and profitability ratio of large size is lower than those of medium size and small size. So we can conclude that financial status of medium size is more satisfied than both large and small size in liquidity, leverage, profitability. It might be considered that medium size has favourable liquidity because current liability is almost equal to current asset. But large and small sizes appeared that current liabilities exceed current assets. Besides, medium size can sell products quicker rate than large size. In leverage aspect, it is found that working capital on the liability portion was utilized by the medium size not too high. It mean that, its leverage is rather satisfied. In profitability aspect, it is found that the figure of net loss to sale in medium size is lower than those of others. Therefore, the opportunity to make a profit of the medium size is more than those of others. As a whole industry, it might be concluded that financial status was unsatisfactory; especially liquidity and profitability, which are not yet attractive to the investors. Studying into the capital management of financial administration of the jute industry in Thailand, this thesis concentrates in 2 parts i.e. (1) the capital structure (2) the statement of the source of funds and the uses of funds for the purpose of finding out the methods of securing the funds, the ways of spending those funds by studying from the balance sheets of each size of the industry. It is found that the capital structure of the large, medium, small companies and of the industry is consisted of the average liability by 80.28 %, 66.13 %, 63.80 % and 75.00 % respectively, and most of them are current liability in form of overdraft and bank loans approximately 64.31 %, 57.98 %, 52.99 % and 61.72 % respectively, and the rest from the manufacturing companies themselves approximately 19.72 %, 33.88 %, 37.20 % and 25.00 % respectively. When we consider about the source of funds and the uses of working capital, it appeared that, generally, working capital has decreased due to using working capital more than getting it. For statement of the source of funds and the uses of funds, it is found that there are signs of unsuitable use of funds which cause the high rate of debt ratio and the low rate of profitability ratio, lest that the industry may not be able to repay in each in time, if this is still consistently practised, the industry will be undergoing high risk and may effect its future financial security. The major problems in the jute industry in Thailand are wage problems, high cost of electricity, the unstable supply of raw materials and the increasing cost of raw materials which cause the high cost of production while the marketing price of jute products is maintaining at the low level. Moreover, there are the problems of over production and the most critical of all, the competition of the synthesis fabric sacks. There are still some problems of capital and the source of funds and the uses of funds among others. The Thailand Jute Mill Association is always playing an important role to help surviving the whole industry. It is believed that the Government should pay more attention in encouraging and promoting the jute plantation and planning a suitable production scheme to meet market demands. The number and size of jute mills should be limited to what they are now to prevent the over-production situation. At the cost of production side, though wage price and electricity cost are uncontrollable, the companies should keep operation cost as low as possible through improving job enrichment and cost reduction. In solving the problems of marketing, the jute industry companies should be encouraged to cooperate in stabilizing the price through their association and the Government should come in to help drafting rules and orders to keep the jute mills together. Moreover, the Government should encourage the use of jute bag for containing various kind of products widely as possible. On financial aspect, the jute companies should review their funding policies to suit the spending terms such as borrowing a short-term loan for really short-term investment. In case of looking long-term funding sources, the Government, again, should come in to find the funding sources to help the whole industry, The Bank of Thailand too, should increase the amount of credit at the low-rate interest for the survival of jute industry companies through the critical period.
