Foton Philippines to Start Local Production at its all-new Assembly Plant in Clark

Manila: The Chinese Heavy duty manufacturer, Foton is all geared up to start its local production on Philippines soil at its newly inaugurated assembly plant worth PhP 1.2 billion at the Clark Freeport Zone situated in Pampanga.

Foton has built a massive 11-hectare plant that will be used to manufacture Foton's passenger and light vehicles along with its heavy-duty lineup of trucks. The major highlight of the launch event was the flag off by a Red 4x4 Foton Toplander, giving a positive sign for the official commencement of operations at this newly built plant.

Foton has taken quite an audacious decision to invest locally. The brand has a great presence in the heavy duty market and also the Foton Toplander is among the top three SUV's in the Philippines. The all new plant will surely help the Chinese brand to stick with the local quality manufacturing that will ultimately lead to cost reduction. Foton Toplander is one of the cheapest yet worth its price SUVs in the market and now it can be speculated that its price will fall more considering the local production. This will give a tough competition to its rivals like Chevrolet Trax and Mitsubishi Montero Sport in the Philippines.

Foton's all-new assembly plant is majorly divided into two different lots facing each other. The first lot will serve as an assembly yard with production operations while the other will be used as a stockyard.

The plant operations are further divided into three major facilities on the basis of their functioning. The first is the Unit Assembly in Building A; the second is the Parts warehouse and Pre-Delivery Inspection located in Building B and the third is Body Fabrication operations located in the Building C.

Foton claims that, in its full working capacity, the single assembly line of the all new Clark situated plant can produce a total of 12,000 units per year. However, the company is also planning to add another assembly line to expedite the production of its widely popular vans.

Foton Philippines president, Rommel Sytin announced at the launch that the company is expecting to manufacture Tornado trucks and Thunder pickups here and export them to neighbouring countries of Laos and Taiwan in future. He also added that Foton is targeting an annual sales volume of around 20,000 units by the end of 2020.

Image Courtsey: c-magazine.com