Isuzu mulls reduction in Philippine assembly line

**ghosthunter** · April 26th, 2013 04:20 PM

Isuzu mulls reduction in Philippine assembly line
By: Euan Paulo C. AÃ±onuevo, InterAksyon.com
April 11, 2013 3:49 PM

MANILA - Isuzu Philippines Corp (IPC) may reduce its vehicle manufacturing line in the country unless government provides incentives so assemblers can compete with cheap imports.

In a media briefing, outgoing IPC president Ryoji Yamazaki said local car manufacturers are weighed down by cheap imports from across Asia because of lower production costs outside.

"Ninety percent of our products are locally assembled but in order to compete with completely built-up [CBU] units from Thailand or Japan we need some fiscal and non-fiscal incentive to keep the local assembly [or] even increase the ratio or percentage of locally assembled vehicles," Yamazaki said.

Based on previous studies, the cost difference of locally-assembled vehicles and CBUs can go as high as $2,000 each or 10 percent of production cost and economies of scale, he said.

"In Thailand the production volume of pick-up trucks is more than 200,000 but here in the Philippines we are only producing 3,000 units. It's better cost-wise to import. In case we get some incentives from the government we still have hope to keep our assembly of pick-up trucks in the Philippines," Yamazaki said.

Because of the stiff competition from cheaper imports, the local car manufacturing industry's share of the domestic market has gone down from 90 percent to less than 50 percent in 10 years.

"As a result, Filipino people lose jobs," Yamazaki said, adding that IPC however has maintained the bulk of its production line.

To level the playing field between locally made cars and imports, assemblers have been pushing for the approval of a roadmap that will outline the incentives for the automotive industry, which is expected to come out by June.

IPC incoming president Nobuo Izumina said the company plans to leverage on the used truck market to increase sales.

"One thing I see in this market is there are used trucks running a lot coming from Japan. Peru a couple of years ago did the same thing -- they imported used truck from Japan [but] government decided to stop importing used trucks and changed emission level [standards]. The auto industry is [now] growing. I hope the same thing happens here," Izumina said.

IPC plans to hike production by a tenth to 13,000 units this year on account of a 10-percent projected growth in demand.

Izumina will take over the helm of IPC on May 3 from Yamazaki who has been assigned a post in the car manufacturer's headquarters in Japan.

source: Isuzu mulls reduction in Philippine assembly line - InterAksyon.com

**niky** · April 26th, 2013 10:11 PM

Simple. Make all locally assembled (CBU, not SKD) cars VAT-free.

**d_mac** · May 2nd, 2013 11:00 PM

Hay kawawang Isuzu Philippines....

....At kawawang Lupang Hinirang

Tumatandang paurong ang Pinas tsk tsk tsk

Until now after 117 years since the oppressive Spanish left in 1896 and the United States, thereafter, educating all of us, building schools across the country, as part of the colonist empires' change of foreign policy from governance based on oppression, fear, exploitation, and theft of an occupied colony's natural wealth like what the earlier British, Dutch, Spanish, French, Portuguese colonists did to a benevolent one like what the Americans propagated more often than not, still we have never matured....

Look around our Lupang Hinirang, not one single industry is fully-developed or flourishing in the country that makes it more self-sufficient manufacturing and production-oriented country instead of just being a trade-based country.... Name it not one, to name a few, these are oil & gas, mining, automobile manufacturing, pharmaceutical, electronics-electrical-semi-conductors (these three areas mentioned, we are even one of the richest countries in gold and copper deposits), and to even include what is supposed to be one of our strengths, agriculture. It's just so pathetic....

What has only flourished actually in Philippines is poverty, corruption, now *** trade is catching up, and OFWs forced to work outside the country to earn at least a decent living for the common good, and provide much needed dollars as remittances to help the country.... And a lot of Filipinos have lose a sense of patriotism and nationalism unlike our neighbouring fellow Southeast Asians....

....And then almost every Filipino is just so naive and arrogant to blame it all to the President, when in fact we don't even have a single mature industry in the country to start with.... Hay Lupang Hinirang....