Mazda starts making Premacy at Ujina 2 plant; fire-damaged Ujina 1 still idle  
11:00:40 - 21/12/2004  
   
 
    TOKYO (XFN-ASIA) - Mazda Motor Corp said it today began making its new
Premacy minivan at its Ujina 2 plant in Hiroshima, near the Ujina 1 plant where
production has been halted since a major fire last week.
    Mazda said it plans to begin selling the new minivan in Japan this spring,
and later in both Europe and the US as the Mazda5. It did not provide any
production or sales forecasts.
    Yesterday, the fifth-largest Japanese automaker said it still cannot say
when it expects production to resume at its Ujina 1 plant, which had been
producing about 1,000 cars a day, including the RX-8 sports sedan, the Demio and
Verisa compact cars, and the MPV minivan.
    Output at the Ujina 1 plant, which can make 268,000 vehicles a year or
approximately 30 pct of Mazda's domestic production capacity, has been halted
since a fire broke out last Wednesday in the coating and painting area.
    Production at the Ujina 2 plant was also temporarily suspended, but
restarted the following day. Mazda has said it may transfer the production of
some models, if necessary, to the Ujina 2 plant, because it was only making the
Demio and operating substantially below its annual production capacity of
236,000 vehicles a year.
    Mazda has two major production bases in Japan, one in Hiroshima and the
other in Yamaguchi prefecture, with a combined capacity of 898,000 vehicles.
    Mazda's shares today closed down 2 yen or 0.65 pct at 308. The shares have
fallen 5.2 pct since the fire last Wednesday.
    robin.elsham@xfn.com
    rte/jm
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