Honda Announces Expansion:

Honda Motor Co Ltd, Japan’s second largest car and motorcycle firm, has announced an international growth strategy that will see it boost its global production capacity to 4.7 million vehicles by 2010, from 3.9 million currently. Honda president Takeo Fukui said that Honda will spend an estimated 23bn yen ($3.04bn) to build a new assembly plant in Thailand, which will commence operation in the latter half of 2008 with annual capacity of 120,000 vehicles. In India, Honda will spend $230m to build a second plant by the end of 2009. In South America, the company will spend $100m to build a new assembly facility in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Toyota Plant in Mississippi:

Toyota Auto Body Co, a unit of Japan's Toyota Motor Corporation, has announced plans to spend several billion yen to construct a plant in the US state of Mississippi to produce pressed car parts for the assembly facility that the parent firm is building there. The Toyota unit will supply parts for the Highlander sport utility vehicle.

Nissan Opens Centre in UK:

Japan's Nissan Motor Company has announced the official opening of a field quality centre (FQC) at the Nissan Technical Centre Europe, located in Cranfield, Bedfordshire. The new site, which was built at a cost of $6.13m, will play a leading role in product quality improvement in Europe, and also centralise responsibilities previously handled by several functions dispersed throughout the continent.

Airbus to Set up JV in China:

French aircraft producer Airbus has signed a joint venture agreement with China’s Tianjin Zhongtian Aviation Industry Investment Co to build a factory in Tianjin, a north-eastern port city 70 miles east of Beijing.