With China overtaking the United States as the world’s biggest auto market in first half of this year, Nissan Motor Co and Honda Motor Co are planning on increasing production capacity to tap brisk demand in China. A spokesman for Nissan, Japan’s third-largest carmaker, said on Tuesday it will add 1,200 workers and operate three shifts a day, instead of the two shifts currently, to increase production at its joint venture Dongfeng Motor Co’s main factory in the city of Guangzhou from 360,000 units a year to 460,000 units. Nissan does not plan to increase capacity at a separate plant in Hubei province, which can currently roll out 100,000 vehicles a year, but the increased capacity at Guangzhou will result in an increase of about 20 per cent to around 560,000 units a year from October.
A spokesman for Honda, Japan’s second-largest carmaker, said it too will add new equipment to enhance automation as well as more workers in its joint venture, Dongfeng Honda Automobile Co, to increase annual capacity at a plant in Hubei to from 165,000 units to 200,000 units by the end of this month. This will bring Honda’s total production capacity in China to 610,000 units. The Hubei plant is capable of building 240,000 units a year, and Honda will consider expanding production to that level if demand warrants it.
[Source: Reuters]