OHIO Honda plant would raise state's status in industry

Ohio is competing with Indiana and Michigan for the new assembly plant.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
There is more at stake for Ohio than just 1,500 high-paying jobs in the fight for where Honda Motor Co. will build its new, $400 million auto-assembly plant.
Success means boosting Ohio's status as a major player in the auto industry while tightening its grip as the second-leading producer of cars and light trucks in the nation.
"The economic value of those jobs is so high, it obviously would be a real plum," said David Cole, president of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich.
Honda announced plans this month to build the plant as part of a $1.18 billion global expansion. The facility will boost the Japanese automaker's North American production capacity from 1.4 million to 1.6 million vehicles a year for a company whose profit more than doubled to a record $1.9 billion in the first quarter.
Honda has said it plans to build the plant in the Midwest by 2008, but will not identify potential sites.
States' proposed sites
Ohio officials are promoting sites near Van Wert, about 75 miles southwest of Toledo, and another one near Octa, about 40 miles southwest of Columbus, as possible locations for the plant. Indiana officials have pinpointed sites in the southeast part of the state between Indianapolis and Cincinnati. Michigan economic development officials say they also have presented a proposal to Honda.
Michigan is the leading producer of cars and light trucks, making 2.5 million of them last year, according to Automotive News. Next is Ohio, at 1.8 million, followed by Kentucky and Missouri at 1.15 million each.
Cole said there are good reasons for Honda to pick Ohio.
"This really is sort of the center of the supply base," he said. "And it is the center of a very large work force."
Supplier jobs
Even if Honda selects another state, the new plant is expected to create new jobs among the Ohio companies that supply Honda with everything from seats to windshields to headlights.
Honda has 150 supplier locations in Ohio, twice as many as Michigan and nearly four times as many as Indiana and Kentucky. Honda suppliers in Ohio employ 41,000 workers, 20,000 who exclusively make parts for Honda.
"The supplier jobs -- that's huge," said Erich Merkle, an analyst with the Grand Rapids, Mich.-based IRN Inc. "You're going to have to see Honda's supplier base expand to keep up with demand."
Merkle said 1,500 new assembly jobs can be expected to generate as many as 10,500 new supplier jobs. If the Honda plant is in Ohio, the automaker's Ohio suppliers would likely get about 60 percent of those jobs, he said.