WUHAN, China, July 10 (Kyodo) — A joint venture between Japan's Honda Motor Co. and China's Dongfeng Motor Corp. held a ceremony Tuesday to mark the start of production at its second plant in Wuhan, Hubei Province.
Dongfeng Honda Automobile Co. has completed the plant with an annual production capacity of 100,000 Civic cars at a site some 4 kilometers northeast of the first plant.
"It has the most advanced production technologies among Honda plants in the world," Honda President Takanobu Ito said at the ceremony.
The new plant brings Honda's total annual production capacity in China to 870,000 units.
Honda's sales in China last year declined from the previous year due to production interruptions following the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan.
"In China, which is the most important market in the world, we will seek to expand our sales this year 20 percent from last year," Ito said.
Honda plans to increase the new plant's capacity to 120,000 units in 2013 and complete a new production line with annual capacity at 120,000 units at another joint venture in 2014, boosting its total capacity in China to 1.01 million units.