Isuzu cuts costs to pave way for Crosswind exports

MANILA, Philippines - Isuzu Philippines Corp (IPC) announced yesterday they will be cutting costs in order to export locally produced Crosswind in Central America.

Outgoing Isuzu President Keiji Takeda said that the price requirement of Central America do not match the cost of production and logistics costs. “We are continuing our effort to minimize the gap.”

Takeda said that the discrepancy between the cost and sales price is between $1,000 and $1,500 per unit. Takeda said they cannot export in other ASEAN countries because majority of this countries are right hand drives while the Philippines is a left hand drive country.

Likewise, he said they are mulling the possibility of exporting the Microbus. “I don’t know whether there is a market or if there is a potential to export in Central America,” Takeda said.

For the Microbus, he said there is still no orders even for the local market because it has not yet met their target price of P1.3 million. “The cost is bigger than that. We are going to try cost reduction and maximize our efficiency.”

Takeda said they are considering sourcing some of the parts locally in order to minimize the costs. “Most components are imported. We are trying to localize the production one by one.”

Also, he said they would like to make the Microbus more compact both in length and in height.

Meanwhile, Takeda said first quarter sales reached 2,600 which is a 20 percent improvement from last year’s figures. He said they are on track to meet their target of 10,500 full year sales. Sales last year was 9,200.

Takeda said January to February sales were below target but March was a better month. In fact, Isuzu has ramped up its production in their local plant by using 60 percent of their plant, an improvement from last year’s 50 percent capacity utilization.

At the same time, Isuzu has announced the appointment of Ryoji Yamazaki as its new company president effective April 1, 2010. The 55-year-old Yamazaki, whose last post was as general manager of Isuzu Motors Limited’s (IML) international department overseeing Africa, Europe and Oceania, replaces Takeda, who is in turn moving to IML as the associate division executive of the international division in charge of ASEAN, China and Taiwan. Takeda served as IPC president for three years.