Honda Motor Co., Ltd. Stock Market Press Releases and Company Profile

Tokyo, Mar 8, 2007 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Honda Auto Parts Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (CHAM), Honda's wholly owned automobile powertrain components production subsidiary in China, today began operations at its newly built plant in Nanhai Industrial Park District, Foshan City. Those attending the ceremony included local dignitaries, guests and staff from the local governments of Guangdong Province, Foshan City, and Nanhai District, as well as Takeo Fukui, president and CEO of Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

CHAM will manufacture powertrain components including automobile transmissions, which will be supplied to Honda's automobile production joint venture operations in China. With the annual production capacity of 240,000 units (transmissions), the new plant will initially accommodate machining and assembly of transmissions and drive shafts as well as machining of crank shafts and connecting rods for engines. The company is planning later to add the machining of gears as well as production of control parts, both key high value transmission components currently supplied from Japan.

In China, Honda manufactures automobiles with three joint venture companies: Guangzhou Honda Automobile Co., Ltd., Dongfeng Honda Automobile Co., Ltd., and Honda Automobile (China) Co., Ltd. which manufactures automobiles for export. The combined annual production capacity has now reached 530,000 units -- 360,000 units at Guangzhou Honda; 120,000 units at Dongfeng Honda; and 50,000 units at Honda Automobile (China). The start-up of production at CHAM enables Honda to secure an adequate supply of powertrain components to support expansion of Honda's automobile production in China, and also to further increase local content of powertrain components, which will help cost reduction efforts and strengthen Honda's competitiveness in the market.

Among all auto parts and components, transmission requires a high level of manufacturing technologies. Therefore, local production of transmissions plays as important a role in the effort to increase local content as local production of finished automobiles and engines. As the first automaker to begin local production of transmissions in China, Honda will accelerate its efforts to improve its competitiveness.

CHAM is Honda's fourth integrated automatic transmission production plant in the world following operations in Ohio in the U.S., Indonesia, and Georgia in the U.S. The addition of CHAM will strengthen Honda's transmission supply capability to support worldwide automobile production.

About Honda Auto Parts Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Established:            September 2005Start of Production:    March 2007Location :              Nanhai District, Foshan City,                         Guangdong Province(30km west of Guangzhou) Chairman:               Atsuyoshi HYOGOPresident:              Masayuki ASHIKAWAEmployment:             Approximately 400 associatesProduction:             Transmissions (AT/MT), drive shafts, crank shafts,                        connecting rodsAnnual Capacity:        240,000 units (transmission)

Contact

Honda Motor Co., Ltd.
Corporate Communications Division
corporate_pr@hm.honda.co.jp
Telephone: +81-(0)3-5412-1512
Facsimile: +81-(0)3-5412-1545


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