Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corp., which opened a P3-billion assembly plant in Laguna province Thursday, said it will spend another P2 billion to put up a stamping plant that will manufacture door panels and car hood.
MMPC said the stamping plant would also be located in the new assembly plant at Greenfield Automotive Park in Sta. Rosa, Laguna.
“This is something that we are preparing to undertake as soon as the policy on automotive development is out and we see government supporting the industry,” MMPC executive vice president for overall operations Orlando Alvarez said Thursday during the Laguna plant inauguration.
Government officials led by President Benigno Aquino III attended the event. The Laguna plant increases Mitsubishi’s production capacity to 50,000 units annually, on a one-shift base, with provision for expansion. The company, in its old plant in Cainta, Rizal, used to produce about 30,000 units yearly. MMPC plans to sell its old plant in Cainta, Rizal.
MMPC chairman and chief executive Osama Masuko said the company originally planned to invest as much as P10 billion to expand Philippine operations, but the company decided to limit the investments to the acquisition of the P3-billion Ford facility in Greenfield Park, pending the release of the government policy on automotive industry development.
The company acquired the new plant from Ford Philippines as a part of its “New Stage 2016” mid-term plan of reinforcing the Philippines as a core business market next to Thailand and Indonesia.
“We have the confidence to invest the money. We are just waiting for the government policy that will support the industry which we believe is contained in the EO [executive order],” Masuko said.
MMPC president Hikosaburo Shibata said the new policy would help vehicle manufacturers decide on their investments.