Japan firm starts P2.3 billion Subic expansion

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT, Philippines – Japanese company Sanyo Denki Philippines, Inc. has started its P2.3-billion expansion project at the Subic Techno Park.

Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority chairman and administrator Eduardo Jose Aliño said the expansion project, which includes the construction of a fourth factory building, will need an additional 1,500 workers to manufacture uninterrupted power supplies, cooling fans, servo amplifiers and stepping motors.

Aliño led the blessing and inauguration ceremony held last month inside the company’s grounds along with Sanyo Denki Philippines Inc. chairman Chihiro Nakayama, director Koichi Uchibori and president and CEO Hirokazu Takeuchi.

Takeuchi thanked the SBMA for its support in the expansion plans of their company, citing that the Subic Bay Freeport is the second home of Sanyo Denki as the parent company Sanyo Denki Co. Ltd. is located in Tokyo, Japan.

Currently, Sanyo Denki Philippines Inc., which was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Jan. 25, 2000 and with the SBMA on March 9, 2000, has three factory buildings and a technology center they opened in 2019.

The company manufactures and repairs electric machineries, electric appliances, computer wares, electronic materials, and all parts and accessories, sells scrap materials, and has a workforce that grew to 4,851 employees as of December 2023.

The company became the top Subic locator in exports value in the first quarter of 2021, according to figures from the SBMA Trade Facilitation and Compliance Department with a freight-on-board (FOB) value of $79.5 million or almost 25 percent  of the total exports from Subic from January to March 2021.

Sanyo Denki was among the very few Subic locators allowed to continuously operate during the COVID-19 pandemic that was under enhanced community quarantine conditions to build cooling fans for the ventilators used for COVID-19 patients.