One indicator that a country at
the barest minimum has made significant inroads towards industrialization is
the presence of large-scale assembly infrastructure, be it for locally-originating
products or locally-manufactured stuff of foreign branding. On that note, the
Philippines had the good fortune in decades past to be home to car assembly
plants by major international brands such as Honda. Their assembly facility is
located at Sta. Rosa, Laguna. It ought to be a point of pride that the
Philippines can make its own Honda vehicles. But owing to current economic
circumstances, that Laguna Honda plant will be closing its doors.
Inquirer.net reports that Honda Philippines announced this past
Saturday, February 22, that their Sta. Rosa assembly plant is being shut down.
The plant’s local assembly workers, around 380 in all, will soon be out on
their ear by March 25, or so. That means just over a month for the factory
employees to begin planning for life after Honda, though it would be difficult.
As Honda Cars Philippines Inc. spokesman Louie Soriano puts it, the
announcement from the company’s Japan HQ took everyone by surprise, even as
they are fully aware of the reasons why the plant closure is necessary.
One reason for Honda Philippines
to close assembly in the country was due to the facility’s low production
capability to begin with – just 15,000 units annually compared to say, over
hundreds of thousands in a major nation like the UK. Even then, the actual
amount being manufactured at the plant is even lower at roughly 8,000 units
only, back in 2019. One attributed reason for the slump was “market demand,”
due to less interest in buying cars due to hiked excise taxes on
foreign-branded vehicles due to factors like the TRAIN law from President
Duterte. Seeing Honda Philippines sales go down by 26.7% and 13% from 2018 to
2019 stings.
But there is also the global
trend to consider. Even without higher excises stifling market demand, drivers
in many countries are shifting from gas-powered cars to e-vehicles, of which
the Laguna assembly plant is not capable of manufacturing yet. Following the
final shutdown in March, the Sta. Rosa facility with churned out certain
best-selling Honda models like the City and BR-V will be a prime acquisition
target by several interested local automakers, though DTI Secretary Ramon Lopez
declined to elaborate.
0 comments:
Post a Comment