Today: 17-03-2006
Industries
Honda Viet Nam sells 2.5 million bikes over a decade http://www.vneconomy.com.vn/eng/?param=article&catid=06&id=5f2e428d92d98a
VNECONOMY updated: 17/03/2006
Honda Viet Nam (HVN) has sold a combined 2.5 million motorbikes since it introduced the first model to the local market in 1998, the largest amount of motorbikes sold by a single firm in Viet Nam, reported the Japanese-invested firm on its 10th anniversary on Tuesday.
Of the figure, as many as 163,000 motorbikes worth US$96 million were exported to some regional countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, making HVN the country's first local exporter of motorbikes, said company officials.
Meanwhile, HVN, which last year invested $60 million in an automobile plant adjacent to its motorbike plant in Vinh Phuc Province, said it would put the first Civic sedan on the market later this year. HVN did not provide information on the planned price of the new sedan.
HVN's general director Hiroaki Funami, said Honda, which spent $6 million on social programmes over the last 10 years, would establish a $10 million fund for more social contributions over the next five years, including $6 million for social activities and $4 million for a traffic education centre.
According to the Ministry of Industry (MoI), Viet Nam's seven foreign-invested and 35 domestic motorbike makers and assemblers sold a combined 1.5 million motorbikes last year, the same figure as in 2004. Of the figure, foreign-invested makers accounted for 1 million units, and Japan-invested Honda sold over 600,000 of those units.
The MoI said by the year 2010, Viet Nam aimed to become a major global producer of motorbikes by exporting at least two million units each year to markets in Southeast Asia and Africa.
The MoI, which has devised the 2010-20 development orientation for Viet Nam's motorbike industry, said the country needed to reach an annual output of 3.1 million units. This figure, which was 1 million units above current production levels, would be required in order to achieve export targets.
Source: Vietnam News
Copyright © News Online - Vietnam Economic Times
» ICP License: No 601/GP-INTER dated 09 April 1998 of the Ministry of Culture and Information - Socialist Republic of Vietnam
» News Online License: No 356/GP-BVHTT dated 27 June 2001 of the Ministry of Culture and Information - Socialist Republic of Vietnam
» Editor-in-chief: Prof. Dao Nguyen Cat » Head office: + Address: 96 Hoang Quoc Viet road, Cau Giay district, Hanoi + Telephone: +84 (4) 755 2060 - Fax: +84 (4) 755 2046 + E-mail: vet at hn.vnn.vn