TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Honda Motor Co. said Monday it plans to build a third motorcycle plant in Vietnam to boost its annual production capacity there by 500,000, to 2.5 million units.
Its local unit, Honda Vietnam Co., will invest about 9.6 billion yen, or $120 million, to build the new plant in Ha Nam Province, some 40 kilometers south of Hanoi. The new plant will begin making scooters in the second half of 2012, Honda said.
Since starting production in 1997, Honda Vietnam has produced 9.6 million motorcycles and its market share reached 64 percent last year, Honda said.
Motorcycle demand in Vietnam, the world's fourth largest market for the product after China, India and Indonesia, has been growing at an annual pace of about 20 percent, according to Honda.
