Isuzu considers local assembly of trucks

Isuzu Philippines Corp. (IPC) is considering the local assembly of Category 5 trucks at its manufacturing plant in Laguna, in view of the estimated 25-percent surge in demand for these heavy duty vehicles.

Arthur A. Balmadrid, SVP for sales division at IPC, said the company had started looking into the viability of adding this truck segment to its existing assembly line.

“We would like to check if we can locally assemble Category 4 and 5 trucks because there is growing demand for them now as (more companies) choose brand new trucks over second- hand units,” Balmadrid said.

“This may not require huge additional investments because we can use our existing truck line at the plant. Right now, our facility is assembling the Category 3 and 4 trucks, which are our N-Series and F-Series,” Balmadrid said. “This may be a logical move for Isuzu as the market (for these heavy duty trucks) continue to grow,” he added.

IPC assistant sales division head Joseph Bautista added that previous growth in demand for category 5 trucks, or those weighing at least 25 tons or more, did not go beyond 10 percent. Recently, however, demand for this truck category has been rising by 20 to 30 percent. The growth, Bautista said, was due largely to the realization by the market that buying new trucks proved to be more cost effective for businesses, and the looming implementation of a government policy that will put a 15-year age cap for trucks, Bautista added.

“Our existing models meanwhile will continue to be locally assembled. But there are no plans yet of expanding facilities as we have enough capacity,” Balmadrid further noted.

At present, IPC assembles the D-Max, Crosswind, and trucks at the Laguna facility, which has a capacity of 15,000 units in one shift, and 30,000 units on double shift. Production for this year is seen to reach around 12,000 units, 4,000 of which are expected to be the trucks.