Japan’s Hino to hike Laguna production

TOKYO—Japanese giant Hino Motors Ltd. is doubling the production capacity of its assembly plant in Canlubang, Laguna, as it expects the sustained growth of the Philippine economy to continue boosting its prospects over the next five years.

Masashi Imaoka, deputy general manager of the Asia and Oceania division at Hino Motors, said here that there remained room for further growth in the Philippines as the local “market is good and is increasing.”

“The Philippine economy is getting better and better for commercial vehicles and the difference in the price between a brand new and second hand [vehicle] is getting smaller. The price gap is small and so we are confident that the brand new market [for trucks and buses] is getting bigger,” Imaoka said.

The said price gap is reportedly just around 20 percent.

Currently, the demand for trucks in the Philippines has seen an uptrend, growing by about 20 to 30 percent as a bigger part of the market starts to shift to brand new vehicles.

Hino Motors is, thus, looking to grow production at its Canlubang plant to about 4,000 units from the current 2,000 units, while sales of trucks and buses are projected to grow to as much as 5,000 yearly starting 2020, Imaoka disclosed.

For this year, Hino Motors expects sales in the Philippines to grow by at least 60 percent to more than 2,000 units from the 1,250 units it sold last year, as Imaoka cited the effort of their dealers in the Philippines in selling Hino vehicles.

“They know how to sell the products,” he noted.

Hino, according to Imaoka, is also planning to launch new models over the next several years as it will introduce in the local market Euro-4 compliant vehicles. This was in compliance to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) policy on the Euro-4 fuel and emission standards.

Atsushi Suzuki, general manager for the automotive department of Japanese giant Marubeni Corp., meanwhile, noted that Hino has become more aggressive to develop products for the Philippine market, which he believes to hold a huge potential.

“In Vietnam, Hino is already selling 5,000 units but the difference is the used cars market. The Philippines still imports used cars but if the government is able to restrict this, we have more potential to grow. When we compare the market size of Vietnam and the Philippines, and if they will have the same conditions [in terms of used trucks and buses], the Philippine market is bigger,” Suzuki said.

Hino, Suzuki further added, is also trying to reestablish the business in the Philippines particularly in terms of quality control standards in the manufacturing plant in Laguna so these will be at par with the Hino global standards.

It can be recalled that Hino Motors and Marubeni Corp. announced earlier this year that they have raised their stakes in local truck and bus manufacturer Pilipinas Hino Inc.

Under the new partnership, Pilipinas Hino was renamed Hino Motors Philippines Corp. (HMP), 70 percent of which is now held by Hino Motors Ltd., 20 percent by Marubeni and the remaining 10 percent by the local partners. Prior to the equity restructuring, the Japanese partners only had a combined 30 percent stake in the company.

“With Hino and Marubeni, we will be able to make the investments required to broaden our product line. To address the growing demand, we need to be able to drastically increase our production capacities and the inventories we need to carry, as well as expand our dealer network from 15 dealers to 20. The Filipino partners felt that we will not be able to properly address the capital requirements to help company meet the required volumes,” HMP chair Vicente T. Mills Jr. earlier said.