Japan car-part imports up

Japan car-part imports up

TOKYO (Reuters): Several Japanese auto-part makers plan to
increase imports of car parts made by their Southeast Asian units
to help boost capacity utilization at their Southeast Asian
facilities.

Stanley Electric Co Ltd plans to import 10 to 15 percent of
the car lamps and bulbs produced at its Thai unit in the year to
March 1999, a Stanley spokesman said yesterday.

Nittan Valve Co Ltd will import from 800,000 to one million
car engine valves made by its Thai and Indonesian units in
1998/99, and plans to boost such imports to 1.5 million units in
the next fiscal year, a Nittan spokesman said.

A spokesman for Mitsuba Corp said the electrical equipment
maker will switch all production of motorcycle turn signal
flasher relays to its Thai unit from Japan in June.

Mitsuba plans to import 150,000 of the relays per month for
supply to Honda, which owns 4.3 percent of the company. Mitsuba
had not previously imported relays from Thailand, the spokesman
said.