Honda Thai production to double this year

Honda Thai production to double this year

TOKYO (Dow Jones): As a sign of the improving economic situation in Thailand, Honda Motor Co. expects to double its Thai production this year, an executive for the Japanese automaker said Monday.

In an interview with Dow Jones Newswires, Satoshi Toshida, president and director of Asian Honda Motor Co., said the company now expects to produce about 32,000 vehicles in 1999 using one shift and some overtime, up from a little over 15,000 last year.

Toshida also said the company's operations in Thailand, hit by the Asian currency crisis two years ago, are expected to return to the black this year as a result of increased exports and aggressive cost-cutting efforts.

"On a consolidated profit basis, we will return to the black" in Thailand in 1999, said Toshida.

Honda began stepping up exports from Thailand, its largest manufacturing base in Asia outside Japan, after the start of the Asia currency crisis in the summer of 1997. Today it ships vehicles to the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand, in addition to Singapore and Brunei.

This year exports are expected to rise to just over 7,000 vehicles from about 2,800 last year, said Toshida. The company is also looking into the possibility of exporting to Africa, he said.