TOKYO (AP) - Honda Motor Co. said Friday that its joint venture in Pakistan opened a new motorcycle assembly plant to meet growing demand.
The new 4.5 billion yen ($39.13 million) plant in Lahore is the second motorcycle production plant for the joint venture by Honda in Pakistan, the Tokyo-based manufacturer said in a release.
Honda Motor President Takeo Fukui and Yusuf H. Shirazi, chairman of Atlas Honda Ltd., Honda’s joint venture partner in Pakistan, were among people who attended Friday’s opening ceremony in Lahore, the release said.
The new plant was constructed in the same compound where Atlas Honda’s first plant is located, it said. Combined annual production will increase to 500,000 motorcycles from the current 400,000 motorcycles, the release said.
The new plant, which started operations Friday, is to meet with an increasing demand for motorcycles in Pakistan, Honda said.
Atlas Honda, set up in Karachi in 1962, is owned 35 percent by Honda, 51 percent by Pakistan’s Shirazi Family and the remaining 14 percent by other interests, it said.
The motorcycle market in Pakistan is expected to grow to above 800,000 motorcycles in 2006 from around 500,000 in 2005, Honda said. In 2005, Honda sold 328,000 motorcycles, up 40 percent from the previous year, it said.
Source: MSN Money
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