Honda Motor Co has set up its own office in Taiwan after severing a 41-year partnership with Sanyang Industry Co (
"We just launched our Taiwan office over the weekend and expect to have a solid footing in local car market," said Chen Chun-liang (
Honda's contract with Sanyang finishes at the end of this month. Sales for Japan's second-largest carmaker in Taiwan fell 44 percent last year to about 20,000 units, according to Honda.
Honda originally said it would spend NT$170 million initially to set up new local operations beginning in March, Satoshi Toshida (
The new unit will manage Honda's motorbike and automobile sales, after-sales service and spare-parts supply.
But thus far Honda has only surveyed several sites in Taiwan, according to Yen Pin-ho (
"At Honda's request, we have arranged for them to visit Tainan Technology Industrial Park (台南科技工業區), Yunlin Technology Industrial Park (雲林科技工業區), Changpin Industrial Park (彰濱工業區) and Kaohsiung's Kanshan Industrial Park (岡山工業區)," Yen said. "They haven't made their minds up yet."
But Chen denied a Chinese-language newspaper report that the company will decide on a site for the automaking plant and a possible research and development center by the end of this month.
The paper said Honda is planning to spend at least NT$2 billion (US$58.6 million) to set up an automobile plant in Taiwan, with a plan to produce 50,000 vehicles a year initially.
Whether or not the proposed Honda plant will be up and running in the second half of the year, a Sanyang manager said "any kind of competition is welcome."
"If Honda wants to just import automobiles into Taiwan, it will not help strengthen its position in the domestic auto market," said Yeh Feng-ming (葉峰明), spokesman for Sanyang -- which secured a new partnership with Hyundai Motor Co of South Korea last month and will start to market and manufacture the Korean brand in Taiwan in the second half of the year.
But if Honda decides to set up shop here, Yeh said they must earmark a lot of money for building plants, distribution networks and after-sales services. "And they must build it all from nothing," he noted.
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