Honda plant could expand

GREENSBURG, Ind. -- Water pipes, electrical lines and other utilities on the site where Honda Motor Co. plans to build a $550 million auto assembly plant are being designed to handle at least 3,500 workers, a local planner said.\nLate last month, Honda officials announced that they would build the factory in southeastern Indiana to help the Japanese automaker meet a growing North American hunger for its cars. Analysts said the plant will help invigorate a state hit hard by manufacturing \njob losses.\nThe plant -- part of a $1.18 billion global expansion -- eventually will produce 200,000 vehicles annually, increasing Honda's North American production to 1.6 million a year. Honda officials said it would employ 2,000 when it opens in 2008.\nBut Decatur County area Plan Director David Neuman told The Indianapolis Star for a Saturday story that the infrastructure could mean the company plans to hire thousands more.\n"This whole thing will be full when it's done," Neuman said, referencing 1,700 acres the plant is expected to include. "They're smart planners."\nThe jobs that pay $24 an hour promise an economic boost to the region. Economists estimate that each new Honda job could result in six others that will serve the plant and workers.\nHonda will not discuss plans for the site beyond information released last week. However, spokesman Jeffrey Smith said the company will build to allow the company to respond to market demands.\nIn 2005, American Honda sold 1.5 million Honda and Acura cars and light trucks, and the continent accounts for about half Honda's annual global sales, the company said. Honda officials expect its sixth North American plant will help meet that growing demand.\nAuto analyst Mike Wall of CSM Worldwide in Northville, Mich., said he would be surprised if Honda wasn't planning to add to the plant west of Greensburg on Interstate 74.\nHonda might have 4,000 workers there as soon as 2010, Wall said.\n"I wouldn't have expected anything less from Honda," Wall said. "This is a very cost-effective and savvy move on their part."\nFour other states -- Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois -- vied for the plant and its jobs after Honda announced in May it would build a plant in the Midwest.\nBut Indiana, which has lost 98,000 industrial jobs since 2000, persuaded the company to build the plant west of Greensburg, a community of 10,500 people 50 miles southeast \nof Indianapolis.\nWall said the plant probably will produce the Fit, a small five-door now made in Japan.\nIn 2009 the flexible assembly line will probably add the current model of the Civic, he predicted. And in 2010 or 2011, the site might be needed to make a redesigned Civic, he said.\n"The sky's the limit for them right now," Wall said. "There is certainly more opportunity."\nGlobal Insight auto analyst Catherine Madden wouldn't predict how many workers would be added through an expansion, or when it might happen. \nBut she said Honda probably will need to add 100,000 units of capacity to the 200,000 it said it will build.\nIndiana Commerce Secretary Michael "Mickey" Maurer said he expected the plant would be expanded to about \n4,000 workers.