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SUBIC
BAY FREEPORT—Buoyed by an expanding market and an
average 38-percent annual export earnings since 2004,
Japanese ultrasonic sensor manufacturer Nicera
Philippines Inc. will infuse an additional P200 million
worth of investments to expand its Subic operations,
company officials said Tuesday.
Nicera,
a subsidiary of
Japan’s
Nippon Ceramic Co., will build a new factory here at the
Japanese-owned Subic Techno Park (STEP) on top of the
manufacturing facility it established in 2001.
Dr.
Yoshiharu Taniguchi, founding president of Nippon
Ceramic Co., signed the firm’s new investment contract
with Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Chairman
Feliciano Salonga shortly after the SBMA board of
directors approved the expansion project on Tuesday
afternoon.
Salonga
described Nicera’s fresh capital infusion as “a clear
illustration of the continued confidence of Japanese
investors in our country, particularly the Subic Bay
Freeport.”
He also
attributed the continuing success of Nicera to “the
fantastic teamwork between Japanese ingenuity and
Filipino dedication to crafting high-quality Subic-made
products.”
Nippon
Ceramic pioneered in the production of ultrasonic
transducers, more commonly known as electronic sensors,
and pyrosensors, more commonly knows as infrared
gadgets, that serve as “ears” and “eyes,” respectively,
for electronic-sensing products.
The
applications for these gadgets include car-alarm
systems, lighting control, parking aid sensor,
automatic- door control, liquid-level measurement,
distance measurement, traffic-signal control, as well as
robotics.
Nicera
products made in
Subic were
traditionally exported to Japan and other Asian
countries such as Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong,
Singapore, Taiwan, Korea, China and Iran, said Nicera
general manager Takashi Morimoto.
However,
the Subic firm has also penetrated markets in Italy,
Germany and Brazil as Japanese automotive makers began
marketing electronic-sensing devices as safety features
for late-model vehicles, Morimoto added.
Aside
from electronic sensors, the Nicera group of companies
also produces ceramic filters, traps, discriminators and
resonators, top-quality ferrite core for power switches
and transformers, microchip components for CD-ROM,
floppy drives and precision motors, and fly-back
transformers.
After
its establishment in
Subic in January
2001, Nicera started producing ultrasonic transducers in
May 2002 with less than 50 workers.
The
company gradually increased its work force over the
years as it introduced new product lines. With this
year’s expansion, Nicera also expects to double its
workers from the present 400 to more than 800 upon
commissioning of its new factory.
Nicera’s
expanding product offerings also resulted in rapid
growth for the company, and enabled it to post an annual
average increase of 38 percent in export earnings in the
last three years.
The
company reported export earnings of P171 million in
2004, P260 million in 2005, and P326 million in 2006. It
expects to close this year with some P400 million worth
of exports.
Taniguchi, who invented the firm’s ultrasonic sensor,
also said the company is scouting for more investment
projects in
Subic because of its advantages in terms of manpower, security and
incentives.
STEP
director Ichiro Tsuji also said the Japanese industrial
estate here expects to sign in more Japanese investors
when the Subic container terminal project and the
Subic-Clark-Tarlac expressway begin operations.
The
Subic port project is expected to increase the free
port’s cargo-handling capacity sixfold to 600,000 TEUs,
while the road project is touted to cut travel time
between the Subic and Clark ecozones to just 30 minutes. |
