Japan's car makers plan to boost overseas production
Japan's car makers plan to boost overseas production
TOKYO (Reuter): Japanese car makers want to boost car production in other Asian countries to meet rising demand and improve prices, industry sources said yesterday.
Honda Motor Co. Ltd. will build a car plant in Rojana Industrial Park, north of the Thai capital Bangkok, to produce an 60,000 cars a year, a spokesman for the company said.
The firm plans to hold a groundbreaking ceremony later this month. The new plant is expected to start production in early 1996, the spokesman said.
The plant will produce cars presently being made at two existing local car plants and vehicles that will be designed exclusively for Asian markets.
In April, Honda said its Thai subsidiary would build a 5.77 billion yen (US$58.8 million) parts-stamping plant in Rojana Industrial Park to produce doors and other body parts for 50,000 cars a year from late 1995. Some of the parts will be used in locally assembled Accord and Civic models.
The factory would play a key role in the promotion of complementary parts exchange in ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) markets, Honda said.
ASEAN groups Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia and Brunei.
Total investment, including the parts-stamping plant, will be more than 10 billion yen ($102 million), the spokesman said.
Honda Cars Manufacturing Thailand Co. Ltd. (HCMT) and local partner Bangchan General Assembly Co. Ltd., which produce Accord and Civic models, plan combined vehicle output of 34,000 this year, up from 24,000 in 1993.
Indonesia
Toyota Motor Corp. is considering increasing production capacity at its Indonesian and Philippines units to an annual 150,000 and 50,000 vehicles respectively, a spokesman for Toyota said.
This is likely to double Toyota's vehicle output in Asian countries to an annual 520,000 in 1997.
In February 1993, Toyota said its Thai joint venture Toyota Motor Thailand Co. Ltd. (TMT) in Samrong, east Thailand, would invest heavily over the next four years to double car production capacity to 200,000 and set up a training center for service technicians.
In August, Ford Motor Co. said it and Mazda Motor Corp. would study the feasibility of jointly building pickup trucks in Thailand for start-up sometime in 1998. Ford owns 24.54 percent of Mazda.
The share of Japanese makers' vehicles fell to 89 percent in calendar 1993 in Thailand, the biggest automobile market in Southeast Asian nations, from 92.6 percent in 1992, and 95.5 percent in 1991.
The decline was due to sales price increases caused by the strong yen, while overall demand in Thailand rose to 456,000 vehicles in 1993, from 363,000 in 1992 and 269,000 in 1991, industry sources said.