Japanese Honda Motors Company has started assembling motorcycles in Bangladesh to supply their bikes at the local market at lower prices.
“Now we are selling CD-80 motorcycle at a price of Tk94,900 each, which was Tk101,000 a year back when Atlas Bangladesh imported and sold it,” marketing manager of Honda Bangladesh Limited Md Rakibul Hasan told the Dhaka Tribune.
The Japanese company entered into a contract with Bangladesh Steel and Engineering Corporation in 2012 to set up a plant in Gazipur to produce motorcycles.
It has invested over Tk610 million, employing around 80 people and the number would stand between 600 and 700 when the production facilities having annual production capacity of 80,000 units would become fully operational.
The plant is now going slowly to ensure quality and customer satisfaction.
The commercial operation of the plant started in January and it produced 1,200 units during the first two months.
Honda Bangladesh has so far appointed six distributors in Jamaplpur, Tangail, Rajshahi, Mymensingh, Takurgaon and Pabna, and expecting to appoint distributors across the country by this year, Rakibul said.
“We do not sell any product with having even a very minor defect and our quality control section is being looked after by the Japanese officials,” he said.
The company has a plan to produce five models with a capacity of 80cc, 110cc, 125cc and 150cc, and it will procure parts from India and Pakistan. The CD-80 motorcycle runs 70 to 80 kilometres with one litre of petrol.
Bangladesh has a market size of about 200,000 million units with annual turnover of Tk30 billion, Rakib said.
According to Bangladesh Road Transport Authority, some 101,588 motorcycles were registered in 2012 while it was 85,808 in 2013.
“The market was down in the last year due to unrest in the country. We hope the sales will pick up this year,” Rakib said.
Indian brand Hero Honda has already struck a contract with Nitol Motors to assemble motorcycle in Bangladesh while another Japanese brand Suzuki is expected to start assembling this year, he said.
Indian Bajaj, Chinese Runner and Indian TVS are three major brands in Bangladesh.
