China intensifies car competition in Philippines

Malaya Business News - Automobile maker Jiangling Motors Co. Ltd. of China plans to produce vehicle parts in the Philippines within the year, according to its local distributor.

"Initially, we want to start with the generic, since this does not need much tooling. Within the next six to eight months, we might try to locally produce some parts of our vehicle lines. If sales increase, we might just convince investors to go into car parts production for JMC," DreamCo Automobile president Gregorio Yee said.

DreamCo is the exclusive distributor of China-made cars and trucks under the JMC brand.

Yee said car parts such as wire harness, hoses, tubes and even interiors could be easily manufactured in the Philippines.

He said the localization of vehicle parts might entail a substantial investment from his company and several investors.

Yee said such investment was on top of the P20 million for the SUV assembly line of JMC which would be in operation by May this year.

DreamCo has five vehicle lines that include a pick-up model, light passenger vans, medium and heavy-duty trucks and the upcoming SUV model. DreamCo shares a space in a plant in Sta. Rosa, Laguna with Star Motors Co., which assembles Nissan SUVs.

Yee said his company was not yet ready to put up its own plant, as it would be more cost-efficient to share space at the moment, rather than spend millions on a largely unutilized plant.

He said the Sta. Rosa plant of Star Motors produced about 550 units, which was about 50 percent of its rated capacity of 1,200 units per month. The Sta. Rosa plant also assembles Nissan models like Navarra, Urvan and Patrol.