Tokyo, July 15, 2004 --- Honda Motor Co., Ltd., today announced that its engineering subsidiary, Honda Engineering Co., Ltd., plans to establish a local subsidiary in China. The new operation will enable Honda Engineering to better support Honda's manufacturing facilities in China to smoothly achieve capacity expansion, new model launches, and other activities necessary for their growth. 

The new subsidiary will seek to facilitate the efficient use of resources to create high quality production facilities by providing technical support close to those locations, including advancement and improvement of mass production equipment and local production of high quality stamping dies. 

Honda Engineering is responsible for Honda’s production engineering and supports the optimization of Honda’s manufacturing operations worldwide by providing expertise in the development of manufacturing strategies, and the development, design, manufacturing and installation of production systems and equipment. The new China subsidiary will be Honda Engineering’s fourth overseas operation, following North America (U.S.), Europe (UK) and Asia (Thailand). 

Honda is currently strengthening Guangzhou Honda’s ability to make full use of its annual production capacity of 240,000 units, and the expansion of Dongfeng Honda, which became operational in April of this year, to a planned annual production capacity of 120,000 units. In order to respond to customers’ needs on a timely manner in the rapidly growing Chinese market, Honda will simultaneously enhance the speed and quality of its local manufacturing operations.