Honda Motor Co. Ltd. is due to start production of aluminum pistons this week at its automotive parts plant in Vietnam, noting it aims to increase the rate of locally sourced parts for the motorcycles it manufactures there.
Honda Metal Industries Vietnam Co. was established in 1996, and recently celebrated production of the 15 millionth unit.
Piston production will take place in a 3,000-sq.m. workshop built on the Honda Vietnam production campus in Phuc Thang, in the northeast of that country. The installation is estimated to have cost 10,810,000.
Honda already casts aluminum engine parts for motorcycles at a rate of 2 million units/year, and the site also includes sintering and extruding operations.
The manufacturer indicated it aims to produce up to 2.4 million aluminum pistons annually at the new operation.
According to its announcement, Honda views the new piston workshop as the next step toward establishing an infrastructure that will be “a firm foundation for local manufacturing and export expansion.”