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Inside Mitsubishi’s new stamping facility in Laguna

With a production capacity of 35,000 units a year

From this facility will emerge thousands upon thousands of locally made vehicle bodies. PHOTO BY VERNON B. SARNE

Business is extremely good for Mitsubishi Motors Philippines, the second-biggest car company in the country in terms of sales. Today, the official distributor of the Japanese automaker formally inaugurated its spanking new stamping facility in Santa Rosa, Laguna. According to Mitsubishi, the facility now boasts the first machine in the Philippines with at least 2,000 tons of stamping pressure.

The stamping plant will now enable MMPC to produce a maximum 35,000 units of the Mirage and the Mirage G4 per year. That’s with the present setup. Should Mitsubishi add more machines—there is still so much available space inside—the total production capacity will also significantly increase, making it possible to manufacture body panels for other models or for export.

“This reflects the commitment of Mitsubishi Motors to the localization of automotive manufacturing in the country,” the company said in a statement provided to the press.

Currently, Philippine-made Mirage and Mirage G4 units have 35% local content. The plan is to grow this amount further so that Mitsubishi may “fulfill a key requirement of the government’s Comprehensive Automotive Resurgence Strategy program.”

At the ceremony venue, MMPC had a color-coded sample unit of a Mirage G4 body to show guests which parts exactly are built in-house, which ones are outsourced and which ones are imported.

So people may know which parts are produced by Mitsubishi in Santa Rosa, Laguna. PHOTOS BY VERNON B. SARNE

“The opening of our new stamping shop is the beginning of a new chapter in the story of Mitsubishi Motors’ operations here in the Philippines,” declared MMPC president and CEO Mutsuhiro Oshikiri. “This stamping facility enables us to turn the aspiration of localized production into reality, further building our presence in the country while at the same time strengthening our offerings to consumers.”

MMPC claims to have already generated “600 additional jobs” since the inauguration of its Santa Rosa manufacturing plant in January 2015.

We were given a tour of the new stamping facility, and we’d like to share with you exactly what we saw.

We've toured many car-manufacturing facilities around the world. We can say that this is something to be proud of. PHOTOS BY VERNON B. SARNE

Pinoy pride, as they say. Here’s to more locally made cars.



Vernon B. Sarne

Vernon is the founder and editor-in-chief of VISOR. He has been an automotive journalist since July 1995. He became one by serendipity, walking into the office of a small publishing company and applying for a position he had no idea was for a local car magazine. God has watched over him throughout his humble journey. He writes the ‘Spoiler’ column.



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