Honda Thailand’s motorcycle arm celebrates 50th anniversary

Thai Honda Manufacturing Co Ltd (Thai Honda Mfg.), the Honda motorcycle and power products manufacturer in Thailand, held a ceremony on March 8, 2016, at its Ladkrabang plant in Bangkok to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its establishment in 1965.

The ceremony was attended by Arthit Wuthikaro, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Industry and other representatives from government agencies as well as business partners of Thai Honda Mfg. From Honda, Tetsuo Iwamura, executive vice-president, executive officer and representative director of Honda Motor Co; Noriaki Abe, operating officer, Chief Operating Officer for Asia & Oceania Regional Operations of Honda Motor Co; Yoshinori Koda, president of Thai Honda Mfg. and other executives attended the event along with Thai Honda Mfg. associates.

As the first local production operation of Honda in Thailand, Thai Honda Mfg began production of motorcycle products for the Thai domestic market in 1967. In 2010, the company began producing mid-sized motorcycles equipped with a 250cc engine for the first time in Thailand. Then, in 2011, the company added a new production line specialised in the production of mid-to-large-sized global motorcycle models. Moreover, in 2014, large-sized motorcycles such as the CBR650 Series were added to their production lineup.

Thai Honda Mfg currently exports a broad range of motorcycle products to a number of countries and regions such as ASEAN countries, Australia, Japan, Europe, and North America.

In 2015, Honda produced approximately 17 million units of motorcycles and approximately 6 million units of power products worldwide. Of this worldwide production, Thai Honda Mfg. accounted for approximately 10% of the motorcycle production and approximately 40% of the power products production, as one of the most significant motorcycle and power products production operations for Honda globally. In 2014, Thai Honda Mfg.’s cumulative production of motorcycles and power products marked the 50 million unit milestone and the number has increased to 55.7 million units as of today (26.9 million units for motorcycles and 28.8 million units for power products).