Honda commits to third Ontario manufacturing plant

TORONTO — While some North American carmakers are scaling back operations in Canada, Honda, for one, continues to expand its stake in the Great White North.

The Japanese auto giant announced it would build a third manufacturing facility in Ontario. The facility, an engine plant, will be located on a site neighboring Honda’s two existing vehicle manufacturing plants in Alliston, Ont., which produce close to 400,000 vehicles a year.

Slated to open in 2008, the new plant is expected to create 340 direct jobs and hundreds of others in related parts supply and transportation service sectors.

At full capacity, the new engine plant will produce about 200,000 four-cylinder engines a year.

Honda’s new engine plant will create 340
direct jobs and hundreds of others in sectors.

“Honda proudly contributes a third manufacturing plant to Canada,” said Hiroshi Kobayashi, president and CEO of Honda Canada Inc. “Today’s announcement supports Honda’s global strategic manufacturing focus of
bringing manufacturing and sales operations to the local market to better respond to customer needs.”

To respond to flexible changes in the North American market and to meet Honda’s projected sales increase, local production in the U.S. will also be expanded to include an auto production plant with a capacity of approximately 200,000 units.

Honda today also announced it will introduce an all-new dedicated hybrid car and a new 4-cylinder diesel engine to be launched in North America in 2009.

“Honda’s third major investment in our province tells the world that Ontario is the best place to be when it comes to investing in automotive parts and assembly,” said Joseph Cordiano, Ontario’s Economic Development and Trade Minister.

GM, Ford, and DaimlerChrysler have, to varying degrees, struggled in the North American market the last few years. Currently, the automotive world awaits a court ruling on whether Delphi Corp. — GM’s largest supplier — is allowed to radically slash workers pay by up to 40 percent.

The Autoworkers union has promised a long strike, which could severely hamper many other auto manufacturers, if Delphi’s request is granted.

In Canada at least, Japanese vehicle manufacturers show no signs of slowing down. Honda’s announcement comes just after rival Toyota Motor Corp. okayed a new, $463 million car assembly plant in Woodstock, Ont. to be built by 2008.

Toyota’s medium duty truck arm, Hino Motors, will open its new truck assembly facility in Woodstock next month. The facility will produce about 2,000 trucks a year.