Mazda Motor Corporation will establish a new affiliate company in Thailand – Mazda Powertrain Manufacturing (Thailand) – and construct a transmission plant with an annual production capacity of approximately 400,000 units in the Chonburi province of Thailand at a cost of JPY26bn (US$285m).
The automaker said the plant was a response to increasing demand for models with ‘Skyactiv’ fuel saving technology (CX-5 and redesigned 6 so far) and “to strengthen its global production footprint”.
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Operations will commence sometime in March to September 2015.
The plant will be located about 5km (3 miles) north of Mazda’s joint venture production facility, AutoAlliance (Thailand) (AAT) and will supply automatic transmissions for models produced at AAT and other factories around the world. AAT currently builds the 2, 3 and BT-50 pickup which are exported to Asia and New Zealand and, under a free trade agreement, Australia.
Mazda chairman, president and CEO, Takashi Yamanouchi said: “Mazda is establishing global production footprints in order to achieve our goal of an annual global sales volume of 1.7m units by fiscal year ending March 2016.
The [Hofu plant in Japan] will remain the chief production facility for transmissions but we have decided to establish a second major transmission plant in [Thailand]. This will… establish a production system capable of responding to the changing demands of our customers in a flexible and timely manner.”
The new plant is expected to employ 500.
