For almost 30 years, cars with a Honda badge rolled out of a factory in Santa Rosa, Laguna. By March 2020, that will stop. Honda Cars Philippines, known as HCPI, announced on Saturday, 22 February 2020, that it was ending production at the plant.
The plant had operated since 1992, Nikkei Asia reported, though by the end it was running at under a fourth of capacity. The company will no longer build passenger cars, or the BR-V and City models, in the country.
What the company said
HCPI president Noriyuki Takakura put the decision in terms of Honda’s regional strategy. “To meet Honda’s customer needs in the Philippines for reasonably priced and good quality products, Honda considered efficient allocation and distribution of resources,” he said in the statement. The company, it went on, had reviewed how it produces vehicles across Asia and Oceania and “decided to close the manufacturing operations of HCPI.”
Nikkei placed the move inside the Japanese carmaker’s global restructuring, as Honda looks to optimise where it makes its vehicles worldwide.
Sales stay, the factory goes
Selling cars is a separate matter. HCPI said it would keep up automobile sales and after-sales service in the Philippines, run through Honda’s regional network in Asia and Oceania.
The open question is people. YugaTech reported that roughly 650 associates work at the plant, and noted that Honda had not yet said what would happen to them or to the infrastructure on site. For families in Santa Rosa and nearby towns who depend on those paychecks, that silence is the part that matters most.
Sources
- Honda to halt car production in the Philippines (Nikkei Asia, Cliff Venzon)
- Honda to end production at Laguna plant by March 2020 (GMA News Online)
- Honda Cars Philippines, Inc. to stop production in Laguna plant (YugaTech, Alejandro Maquinto)
