Honda to Boost Capacity 20% at Ohio Plant

Honda, already in the midst of doubling the size of its U.S. auto assembly plant in Marysville, Ohio, said Thursday that it will expand production capacity of that facility by another 20% within two years.

At a press conference in Tokyo, Tadashi Kume, Honda’s president, said the Japanese auto maker has decided to expand the Ohio plant’s annual production capacity to 360,000 units by 1988.

Honda’s earlier plans had called for peak car-making capacity at Marysville of 300,000 units a year, up from its 1985 output of 145,000 Accord models. It is currently adding a second assembly line at the plant, so that it can add Civic subcompact production later this year.

But Kume said Thursday that the addition of new automated equipment will make it possible to add another 20% to the plant’s output of Accords and Civics.

Because the productivity gains will come through the increased use of robotics, however, the additional production will not translate into extra jobs for American workers, a Honda spokesman said. Peak employment at the plant following its expansion will still be 3,500, the work-force level announced when the earlier expansion plans were publicized.

With the extra capacity, the Marysville complex will solidify its position as Honda’s third-largest car assembly facility in the world, trailing only Honda’s two Japanese car assembly plants at Sayama and Suzuka. Both of those plants produce at least 500,000 cars annually.

Kume predicted that the Marysville plant will build about 220,000 cars in 1986 as Civic production gears up in the second half of the year. At the same time, he said, Honda expects to import another 430,000 cars, up about 5.7% from last year’s 407,000 units.

With the additional U.S. production and the increase in its exports to this country, Honda, more than any other major Japanese auto maker, is becoming highly dependent on the American market. Since 1984, Honda has sold more cars in the United States than in Japan, and the gap will widen even more in 1986.

Kume said Honda, a distant third in the Japanese home market behind Toyota and Nissan, expects to sell 525,000 cars and trucks in Japan this year, compared to a total of 650,000 in America.

A key factor in Honda’s future in the U.S. market could be determined this year, when it introduces its new line of upscale, pricey cars under the Acura nameplate. Honda has said it is studying whether to build another assembly plant in the United States to supplement the output from Marysville. But the company spokesman said Thursday that the decision on whether to go ahead with another plant could hinge on the success of the new Acura lineup.