Mitsubishi to expand Rizal plant

MANILA, Philippines - The local unit of Japanese car maker Mitsubishi Motors Corp. (MMC) is looking at expanding its assembly plant in Rizal.

Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corp. (MMPC) president and chief executive officer Hikosaburo Shibata said in an email the firm is currently studying expanding its assembly plant in line with MMC’s new mid-term plan.“

For MMPC expansion, we are now in the final stage of our study and hopefully we can start the project within next year,” he said.

Under the new mid-term plan, MMC has identified as a key strategy to reinforce its production base in Southeast Asian countries including the Philippines.

Shibata said that while the Philippines is far behind Thailand and Indonesia in terms of automotive market sales, it is projected to rapidly grow in the coming years given its close to 100 million population and coming age of motorization.“

Given this, MMC is securing to enhance MMPC’s production capacity as well as its sales network to align with the potential market demandupsurge,” he said.

MMPC currently assembles the L300, Adventure and Lancer EX at itsplant located in Cainta.

The plant has an annual production capacity of 15,000 units on one shift.

As part of enhancing the production capacity here, MMC announced last year that it is investing around P800 million in MMPC’s affiliate company, Asian Transmission Corp (ATC).

The investment would allow ATC to produce 60,000 units of new transmission assemblies at its plant in Laguna by the middle of this year.

ATC produces transmission and engine parts for vehicles being assembled by MMPC. It also manufactures component parts and transmission assembly for  Mitsubishi plants in other countries likeJapan, Thailand, Taiwan, Malaysia and Indonesia.

MMPC aims to sell 50,000 vehicles this year after selling 43,176units in 2013.

Last year’s sales surpassed the previous all-time high sales of 36,533 units in 1996.