Commercial Real Estate · Industrial & Warehouse · Songkhla

Songkhla industrial & logistics market: Deep Sea Port, Chana power plant & the stalled FAIC estate

Songkhla town's own industrial and logistics real estate footprint — distinct from Hat Yai's rubber-processing and border-trade market, roughly 30km inland: the operating Songkhla Deep Sea Port, EGAT's 1,476MW Chana gas-fired power plant, and the long-paused, controversial Chana Industrial Estate (FAIC) mega-project. Builds on our national industrial & warehouse overview. General information only, never paid placement.

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By Kirby Scofield
Founder of BAANLYY · International real estate broker, investor & relocation specialist
Last updated 10 July 2026 · Last reviewed 10 July 2026

← Industrial & Warehouse Space in Thailand

The one-line version

Songkhla town's genuine industrial and logistics footprint rests on two operating assets — the Songkhla Deep Sea Port and, further south in Chana district, EGAT's 1,476MW Chana gas-fired power plant — plus the long-paused, controversial Chana Industrial Estate (FAIC) project, halted since December 2021 pending a Strategic Environmental Assessment with no confirmed restart identified. This is structurally different from Hat Yai's separate industrial market, covered on its own page, which centers on rubber processing and Sadao/Padang Besar border-trade warehousing. There is no operating IEAT-licensed estate in Songkhla province today, so there is no Free Zone-style freehold land route here.

01

Songkhla's real industrial & logistics assets

This is a fundamentally different footprint from Hat Yai's industrial & warehouse market, roughly 30km inland, which centers on rubber processing, the Rubber City downstream zone and Sadao/Padang Besar cross-border trade warehousing.

02

Types of industrial & storage space near Songkhla

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Why this is genuinely distinct from Hat Yai's industrial market

Songkhla town and Hat Yai sit roughly 30km apart within the same metro area, but their industrial profiles don't overlap the way a first pass might suggest. Hat Yai's industrial and logistics real estate, covered on its own dedicated page, is built on rubber processing feeding the Rubber City downstream zone, cross-border trade warehousing tied to the Sadao and Padang Besar checkpoints, and the city's role as the South's rail, road and air logistics hub. Songkhla town's industrial identity instead runs through the coast: an operating deep-sea port handling the region's rubber-sector exports, a major utility-scale power plant in neighbouring Chana district, and an unresolved, politically contentious plan for a much larger industrial estate that has sat paused since 2021. A logistics operator evaluating port access, bonded cargo handling or power-adjacent land should look at Songkhla and Chana district specifically; one evaluating rubber-processing plants, downstream rubber manufacturing or land-border trade warehousing belongs on the Hat Yai page instead.

04

Rent, lease terms & typical costs

Treat this as a directional pattern rather than a live quote, and confirm current figures with a local commercial agent. Because Songkhla province has no operating, formally developed industrial estate, there is no published park-style rate card the way there would be inside an EEC or IEAT zone — port-side warehousing and cold storage is typically arranged directly with the operators clustered around Songkhla Port, case by case, rather than leased from a master developer. The Chana Power Plant site is not leasable third-party space at all; it is EGAT-operated utility infrastructure. If and when the Chana Industrial Estate (FAIC) proposal is revived, any leasing framework, rate structure and land-ownership rules tied to it would need to be confirmed fresh, since none has been publicly finalised while the project remains paused.

05

Foreign ownership & BOI considerations

Land near Songkhla Deep Sea Port and in Chana district falls under Thailand's standard restriction on foreign land ownership — a foreign-owned company generally needs a long-term lease or a Thai-majority corporate structure to hold it directly, exactly as elsewhere in Thailand. Because there is no operating IEAT-licensed estate in Songkhla province today, there is currently no Free Zone-style automatic freehold route available here the way there is inside Eastern Economic Corridor estates. Separately, under the Investment Promotion Act, a company holding BOI promotion for an eligible activity — port and logistics services, power generation, or agro/seafood processing are plausible categories tied to Songkhla's actual industrial base — can apply to the Board of Investment for permission to own land needed for that specific promoted business; this is a discretionary approval with its own conditions, not an automatic right. Any land or investment plans tied to the paused Chana Industrial Estate (FAIC) proposal should be verified directly with Songkhla provincial authorities, the Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning (ONEP) and a Thai-qualified lawyer before committing capital, given the project's unresolved Strategic Environmental Assessment status. General power-sector information is available directly from EGAT.

06

Frequently asked

Is Songkhla town itself an industrial city?Not in the manufacturing-estate sense. Songkhla town's own industrial and logistics footprint rests on two operating assets — the Songkhla Deep Sea Port and, about 30-40km south in Chana district, EGAT's Chana gas-fired power plant — plus a long-paused, highly controversial plan to build a large industrial estate in Chana district. This is a genuinely different profile from Hat Yai, roughly 30km inland, whose separate industrial page covers rubber processing, the Rubber City downstream zone and Sadao/Padang Besar border-trade warehousing. Songkhla's identity is port-and-power infrastructure plus an unresolved mega-project, not a rubber belt or a land border.
What does the Songkhla Deep Sea Port actually handle?Songkhla Port is an operating deep-sea facility with three berths totalling roughly 510 metres of quay, handling on the order of 1.8 million tonnes of cargo and around 140,000 TEU of containers a year according to trade-data listings. Exports lean heavily on the region's rubber sector — rubber, rubber gloves, rubberwood and latex — alongside general cargo, containers and frozen food; imports include general cargo, containers, fertiliser, frozen fish and building materials. It functions as southern Thailand's main sea gateway for rubber-sector exports rather than a container mega-port on the scale of Laem Chabang.
What is the Chana Power Plant?The Chana Power Plant is a large EGAT-operated, gas-fired combined-cycle facility in Chana district, roughly 30-40km south of Songkhla town. Block 1 was cabinet-approved in 2005 and began commercial operation in 2008; an 800MW Block 2 extension — Thailand's first single-shaft combined-cycle unit — was approved in 2011 and completed in 2014, bringing total capacity to roughly 1,476MW. It runs primarily on natural gas piped from the Malaysia-Thailand Joint Development Area (JDA) gas fields in the Gulf of Thailand, with diesel as a backup fuel. It is a utility asset operated directly by EGAT, not third-party industrial real estate.
What happened to the Chana Industrial Estate (FAIC) project?It remains paused, and BAANLYY is not aware of a confirmed restart as of this writing — treat any claim that it is proceeding with caution and verify directly before relying on it. The government's plan, sometimes referred to as the Futuristic Advanced Industrial City (FAIC), called for roughly a THB 18 billion industrial estate across about 16,700 rai in three Chana district tambons, intended to host green power (LNG, solar, wind, battery storage), advanced electronics, a deep-sea port and agro-processing. Local opposition under the Chana Rak Thin ("Save Chana") movement culminated in a December 2020 sit-in protest at Government House, and on 14 December 2021 the cabinet resolved to halt all project activity pending a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) of southern development projects, originally targeted to conclude around mid-2023. No public confirmation of the project resuming construction has been identified since. Anyone evaluating land or industrial opportunities tied to this project should confirm its current legal and planning status directly with Songkhla provincial authorities or ONEP rather than assuming either outcome.
Can a foreign-owned company own industrial or port-adjacent land near Songkhla?The standard rule applies: land near Songkhla Deep Sea Port or in Chana district falls under Thailand's general restriction on foreign land ownership, so a foreign-owned company typically needs a long-term lease or a Thai-majority corporate structure to hold it directly. Neither the Songkhla Port area nor Chana district currently carries an operating IEAT-licensed industrial estate, so there is no Free Zone-style freehold route available in Songkhla province the way there is inside EEC estates. A company holding BOI promotion for an eligible activity — port and logistics services, power generation, or agro/seafood processing are plausible categories here — can separately apply to the Board of Investment for permission to own land tied to that specific promoted business; this is a discretionary approval, not an automatic right, so confirm current eligibility with the BOI and have a Thai-qualified lawyer structure any application.
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Industrial & Warehouse Space in Thailand (national)Hat Yai Industrial Market Deep DiveKrabi Industrial Market Deep DiveCommercial Real Estate HubSongkhla City GuideProperty Lawyers

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General information only — not investment, legal or tax advice. Port throughput figures, power-plant capacity, the Chana Industrial Estate (FAIC) project's legal status, and foreign land-ownership provisions near Songkhla change over time; verify current details with the Board of Investment, EGAT, ONEP or a licensed Thai lawyer before relying on them. BAANLYY never takes paid placement.

Sources & References

Sources & References

Primary and official sources are cited above. Government rules, fees and procedures in Thailand change over time and vary by office; always confirm current requirements with the relevant authority before relying on them. BAANLYY never takes paid placement in editorial content.

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