Honda to build a new car plant in Mexico

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TOKYO, July 31: Honda Motor Co is considering building a new automobile plant in Mexico, a company spokesman said on Sunday, as Japan's No.3 automaker looks to expand in the North American car market. "We are looking for a place to build a new plant in Mexico," said the spokesman, adding that the company had not decided on details yet. Japan's Nikkei daily reported on Sunday that Honda planned to invest about 20 billion yen ($260 million) to build a new plant near its existing plant in central Mexico to manufacture models such as its Fit subcompact, which is currently exported from Japan. Honda's existing plant in Mexico is already running at near capacity while the Japanese yen has risen near record high of 76.25 yen per dollar this month, making domestic production more costly. Nikkei said Honda aimed to start operations at the new plant in 2014 with initial production capacity of 100,000 units. - Reuters