More Cars, More Jobs: Toyota, Mitsubishi to Expand Production Capacity in PH

Toyota Motor Philippines Corp. is planning to expand its local manufacturing capacity by as much as 20 percent in the next two years to take advantage of the new government incentives.

“We need to improve efficiency and we have to expand. Our capacity is quite stretched,” Ty told Reuters, adding that its plant utilization rate was already more than 90 percent.

Toyota Motors is Japan’s biggest auto manufacturer and is a dominant car producer in the Philippines.

The company, a joint venture with local conglomerate GT Capital Holdings Inc., is looking at increasing production capacity by 10 to 20 percent from the current 40,000 a year, said Alfred Ty, the automaker’s vice chairman.

The projected expansion also allows more employees to work in its manufacturing facilities in Laguna, and in some companies that supplies its parts in Batangas.

In separate news, Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corp. is investing another P3.5 billion to P5 billion to upgrade its production capacity and create a new vehicle platform in the Philippines.

“This plan will be triggered once the EO (executive order) on auto industry manufacturing is finally approved and release. For now, we’re still playing by the ear. We follow what our Japanese investors say,” MMPC executive vice president for overall operations Orlando Alvarez said over the weekend.

The investment will also include the establishment of a P2-billion stamping facility, which the company disclosed earlier.

“We have all the necessary preparations taken care of.  It’s just a matter of the category, although we are seriously considering small car. The market for small cars is growing,” said Alvarez.

Mitsubishi also plans to upgrade equipment to further improve assembly process and quality and make it at par with other Mitsubishi Motor assembly plants.

It installed at the new plant in Laguna an advanced automated plastic parts paint robot capable of multi-color painting, the first-of-its-kind in the Philippines.

The company will also set up a sophisticated body measuring machine that provides high degree of consistency for all locally-assembled models.

The projected expansions by two giant car manufacturers is expected to give at least 5,000 more direct and indirect jobs their main production facilities and their suppliers, the report said.

/Carla Gamboa/

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