Mitsubishi will focus production on Japan, Russia, SE Asia after closing US plant

TOKYO (Reuters) -- Mitsubishi will concentrate creation on Japan, Russia and South-East Asia after shutting its U.S. plant later this year.
Mitsubishi President Tetsuro Aikawa mentioned the auto-maker "principal purposes of generation" will be Japan, Russian Federation and countries in the Association of South-East Asian Countries (ASEAN) trading bloc which includes Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand.
Aikawa was talking today in a news conference after his firm supported plans to stop output at its exclusive North American plant in Normal, Illinois, and serve the U.S. marketplace from manufacturing plants in Japan and Siam. Shares climbed more than 5% as traders welcomed the swap.
The change comes as Mitsubishi increasingly concentrates output in South-East Asia, where its pickups and sport utility vehicles are popular. The auto-maker now assembles automobiles in Thailand and the Philippines, and stated in February it'll develop a brand new factory in Indonesia for automobiles including its Pajero Sport SUV.
Mitsubishi also has a joint-venture plant with PSA/Peugeot Citroen in Russian Federation.
Aikawa mentioned the shift to shut the Regular factory - opened in 1988 as a joint-venture of Mitsubishi and its then-associate, Chrysler - was prompted by reduced-quantity creation rather than shifts in foreign currency exchange rates making exports from Japan more affordable.
At its peak in the early 2000s, the Standard plant constructed more than 200,000 automobiles a year, while in calendar 2014 it made 69,178 Outlander SUVs. In the fiscal year ended March 2015, the organization 's U.S. revenue totaled 82,000, compared with a world-wide total of about 1million.
Aikawa stated to-day that he believed finding a purchaser for the plant will be comparatively simple because demand for automobiles in the buoyant U.S. industry was powerful.
Mitsubishi is still searching for prospective buyers for the U.S. plant to maintain jobs for the 900 hourly employees at the plant, the firm said in a statement on Friday.
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26.07.2015
ID:2559

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