AUTOSHOWFuji Heavy CEO says no new factories before 2011
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Chang-Ran Kim, Asia auto correspondent
DETROIT, Jan 13 (Reuters) - Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd
(7270.T: Quote, Profile, Research), the maker of Subaru cars, is planning no new car
assembly plants before 2011 and instead will add capacity in
Japan to meet its goal of expanding sales by 17 percent in 2010
from last year.
Under its four-year business plan ending in March 2011, the
Japanese automaker is aiming to reach sales of 683,000 vehicles
a year worldwide against 583,000 in the 2007 calendar year.
With annual production capacity of 505,000 cars a year in
Japan and up to 120,000 in Indiana, Fuji Heavy will need to
either expand its existing plants or build a new factory.
“A brand new factory would cost too much, and we don’t have
the right level of sales to build a new one anywhere,” Chief
Executive Officer Ikuo Mori told Reuters in an interview at the
North American International Auto Show on Sunday.
Mori had said last year that a factory in Eastern Europe
was a possibility given a recent sales surge in Russia. But he
was more downbeat on that idea, noting that it would be cheaper
to export from Japan since local production would require big
investments on vehicle molds and tools.
“In some ways, China is a more attractive site because when
you look at the population difference, Russia is no match,” he
said. He added, however, that the Chinese market as a whole was
burdened by overcapacity and Fuji Heavy had already had to
close a factory there in the past, making it difficult to
justify a re-entry.
Fuji Heavy, best known for its flat-four engines, this
month raised its monthly production capacity at its domestic
factory for cars other than 660cc minivehicles to 31,000 units
from 28,000. Mori said that would be raised further to 33,000
units a month from August, 2008. Continued…
