Filtered By: Money
Money

Despite industry roadmap delay, Nissan Philippines sticks to five-year growth target


Nissan Philippines Inc. unveiled the new X-Trail on the first day of the 5th Philippine International Motor Show Thursday night, September 18, 2014, at World Trade Center, Pasay City. Nissan Philippines president and managing director Antonio Zara said the Philippines is among the first ASEAN countries to launch the new X-Trail.
 
Despite the delay on the part of government in issuing the latest automotive industry roadmap, the Philippine unit of Japan's Nissan Motors Co. Ltd. is keeping its sights on 15 percent market share in the host market over the next five years, a company official told GMA News Online.
 
Nissan Philippines Inc. is committed to grow in the Philippines with or without the roadmap, president and managing director Antonio Zara said in an interview late Thursday when the carmaker launched the X-Trail. 
 
The sports utility vehicle was unveiled on the first day of the 5th Philippine International Motor Show organized by the Chamber of Automotive Manufacturers of the Philippines Inc. in Pasay City.
 
"Our aim is to grow in line with our global targets of 8 to 15 percent. This is more a mid-term plan. It would take at least five years," Zara said.
 
Nissan Philippines claims its market share is currently 4 percent. 
 
Last March, Nissan Motors executive vice president Takao Katagiri said the group targets a 15 percent market share in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
 
While it may be difficult to ramp up production without a roadmap, Zara said the mid-term growth target is achievable with the current capacity of the Nissan factory Sta. Rosa, Laguna.
 
"We have more than enough capacity in the Philippines... We do assembled vehicles in the Sta. Rosa plant," he said. The locally assembled vehicles include Almera, Patrol, Navara and Urban.

Leveraging global strength
 
Nissan Philippines will also try to leverage global strength of its mother company by bringing in completely built units (CBU) from Japan and other assembly plants in the ASEAN region, Zara noted.
 
"We also have capacity in other Southeast Asian markets. We have a new plant in Thailand, production capabilities in Indonesia, Malaysia," he said.
 
"This allows us to have a very solid ASEAN portfolio strategy which is consistent with the Philippines coming in the AEC 2015," the official added.
 
Discussions about an industry roadmap started in 2012, and a draft was supposed to be released in the first quarter of 2014 but was deferred as the Department of Trade and Industry needed to "fine-tune" the details.
 
On Thursday, Senator Paolo Benigno "Bam" Aquino IV said the Senate committee on trade will call for a hearing next week to present the much delayed long-term plan or industry road map and to align it with government's logistics and infrastructure policies.
 
But the senator was averse to having additional incentives under the Board of Investments. 
 
But as a car manufacturer, Nissan Philippines is still interested in what the government intends to do with the industry, Zara said.
 
"We are very eager to understand what the government is offering. 

'Long-term commitment'
 
"The problem with the automotive, it's not short-term... We need to have a long-term commitment from government so that we can come up with a strategy appropriate for the environment," he said.
 
"More important is to establish a roadmap that government can commit to. We cannot be changing the rules in the middle of the game. Let's have a roadmap everyone agrees to. We're hoping it will not take too much time going through the Senate," he added.
 
The Japanese carmaker opened shop in the Philippines in 1982 as Pilipinas Nissan Inc., a joint venture with Marubeni Corp. It later changed names to Nissan Motor Philippines in 1991.
 
However, parent Nissan Motors decided to pulled out in 2000 following the 1997 Asian financial crisis as sales dipped.
 
Last December, Nissan Motors returned and established Nissan Philippines Inc. – a joint venture with long-time partners Universal Motors Corp. and Nissan Motor Philippines Inc. 
 
Universal Motors distributes commercial vehicles, while Nissan Motor Philippines handles passenger vehicles. – VS, GMA News
LOADING CONTENT