Honda has announced that it will stop production in the Philippines, ending its manufacturing operations at its plant in Santa Rosa next month. The facility, located in the Laguna Province, began operations in 1992 and currently produces BR-V and City models. It has a workforce of around 650 personnel.
In a statement, the automaker said that after consideration of optimisation efforts in production operations in the Asia and Oceania region, the decision to end production in the country was made. Despite the closure of the plant, the company says it will continue its automobile sales and after-sales service operation in the Philippines, through the utilisation of its Asia and Oceania regional network.
According to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, a local Honda spokesperson said that the decision to end production in the country was due to the low production volume and the automaker wanting to make better use of its resources.
“Honda needs to close down the Philippine factory because of its low production volume. It’s not because of an issue on politics, or an issue on government policy, or on labour union. It’s none of that. That’s the direction of Honda Motor so it could have an efficient utilisation of its resources,” Louie Soriano, spokesperson of Honda Cars Philippines, told the publication.
It was not mentioned what Honda planned to do with the factory, but the report added that the government says that there are auto companies that are interested in taking over. This has happened in the past – in 2014, Mitsubishi Motors acquired Ford’s Santa Rosa assembly plant, which the US automaker had shuttered at the end of 2012.