Honda to increase productive capacity in 20%
Valor Econômico - 06/10/2008
As it becomes self-sufficient in the production of the engines of the vehicles it produces in Brazil, Honda is now getting ready to take another leap in the industrial capacity. After August, the maker will have the capacity to produce another 100 cars a day. That means an increase close to 20% in the current average, according to what director of Honda Automóveis do Brasil Horácio Natsumeda said to Valor. When it started working, in 1997, the plant, in Sumaré, interior of São Paulo, produced 60 cars a day. Since last October, the same plant operates with averages of 500 to 550 units. Now, it is the total self-sufficiency in the production of the engine, considered the heart of the car and up to this moment produced here with parts imported from Japan, which will open the doors to the Brazilian branch to walk at larger strides towards increasing the capacity. This increase in the rhythm of the line, of more than 100 vehicles per day, after August, will require structural changes, resources in new machines and hiring of personnel. A new building had to be erected to shelter the weld sector, removed from the main area to give room to new machines. Natsumeda says it will be necessary to eliminate bottlenecks, such as the purchase of new plastic injectors. The expected number of new hirings in this new growth phase amounts to 400. It is equivalent to the number of employees on the date of the inauguration. Today there are 2.5 thousand workers. However, even with the increase of the capacity, this plant will be in the limit. Nowadays, the production of two models - the sedan Civic and the minivan Fit - takes place in three shifts. Should it decide to further increase the production in Brazil, Honda will not have another choice but to define a new program of investments. So far, the company accumulates US$ 542 million in resources already invested in the Brazilian car plant. The building constructed especially to shelter the line of engines, inaugurated yesterday, absorbed an investment of R$ 130 million (US$ 79.8 million) and opened 180 new jobs. The line of engines will also operate in three shifts to produce, initially, 13.5 thousand units a month and 16.5 thousand in the second phase, next year, when it will also become the supplier of the engines for the new plant in Argentina.