RP to be Honda’s transmission hub for global plants

Japanese auto giant Honda Motor Co. will build an auto transmission plant in the country, making the Philippines its transmission hub for its global network of factories in North America, Europe and Asia.

This was announced yesterday by Honda Motor Co. senior managing director Katsuro Suzuki during the ground breaking ceremony of the P1-billion project that should begin operations at the Laguna Technopark in October 2003.

The Laguna factory is expected to produce 140,000 units a year and generate over 200 new jobs for highly skilled Filipino workers.

Suzuki said the plant is expected to generate $65 million annually from exports of auto transmission alone.

"The manufacturing and export of manual transmission is only a stepping stone. The next step is to identify a vehicle to be locally manufactured and exported to other ASEAN countries," Suzuki disclosed.

Suzuki said Honda will be the second local assembler to undertake the assembly of completely built up (CBU) units for export to other ASEAN countries.

Honda will follow the lead of Ford Motor Co. Philippines Inc which is assembling Ford Laser sedans and Ford Escape vehicles for export to Thailand and Indonesia under the ASEAN Industrial Cooperation (AICO) scheme.

The Board of Investments (BOI) has been encouraging at least two other local vehicle manufacturers to engage in CBU export because of its huge potential as a foreign exchange earner.

Ford expects to export about 65,000 vehicles over the next five years.

Honda, however, still has to identify what vehicle it will assemble locally and export to other ASEAN countries.