Honda Philippines Motorcycle Production Reaches One Million Milestone

Manila, Philippines, Feb 10, 2005 - (JCN Newswire) - Honda Philippines, Inc., Honda's motorcycle production and sales and power product sales subsidiary in the Philippines, today commemorated the cumulative production of 1 million motorcycles. In addition, the company announced a plan to relocate its production operations to a new plant with improved efficiency and expanded production capacity in response to the rapid growth of the Philippines motorcycle market.

Honda began motorcycle production in the Philippines in 1973 with establishment of a joint venture, Mariwasa-Honda, Inc. In 1983, Honda assumed majority control and changed the company name to Honda Philippines, Inc. In 2004, the company reached annual production of 200,000 units, a 52% increase compared to 2003, with the cumulative production milestone of 1 million units achieved earlier this month.

The new 42,000m2 plant will be located on a 200,000m2 lot in Santo Tomas City, Batangas Province, 60 km south of the existing plant. The initial annual production capacity of the new plant will be 500,000 units; however, with expansion of the building, capacity can be flexibly expanded up to 1 million units. The total investment for the new plant is 1.3 billion pesos (approximately 2.5 billion yen). Construction is expected to begin in March 2005, with the plant to become operational in January 2006.

An environmentally friendly layout will be employed for the new plant. Synchronization of each production process will lead to reduced inventory requirements and improved efficiency of production and logistics is expected to be achieved while using existing equipment.

The motorcycle market in the Philippines grew rapidly in 2004, reaching 475,000 units, a 53% increase from 2003. The market is expected to grow further in 2005, up to 600,000 units. Key products of Honda Philippines, Inc. include the XRM and Wave Alpha. Total sales reached approximately 204,000 units in 2004, a 56% increase from 2003.

Honda Philippines, Inc.

Established: December 1983 Start of Production: December 1983 Location: Metropolitan Manila, Philippines Capital Investment: 640,860,000 pesos Capitalization Ratio: 99.61% Honda Motor Co., Ltd. Representative: Yasuhiro Oyama, President Business: Production and sales of motorcycles, sales of power products Employment: Approx. 530 associates (as of January 2005) Annual Capacity: 300,000 units (as of January 2005) Production Models: XRM(110cc),Wave Alpha(100cc),TMX155(155cc), XR200(200cc) and other products