(Timmonsville) April 25, 2003 - Personal watercraft
are sold all over the world, and now many of those
bought will be build right here in South Carolina.
Honda's newest South Carolina assembly line has been
up and running for almost six months, turning out
hundreds of the company's "Aquatrax" personal
watercraft.
The latest phase of an $11 million dollar expansion
for Honda's Timmonville plant and the only operation of
it's kind in the manufacturing empire of 110 plants in
31 countries.
Ray Blank of American Honda Motor Company in South
Carolina said the plant has some of the newest
technology, "This is one of our newest facilities on a
global basis. and because of that, we have the latest
equipment. We have plenty of space here. We've got great
folks working from the local area."
With the new plant, comes more employment. PWC
production added dozens of new positions at the plant,
total jobs about 1,650.
The company is now even more of a jewel in the
crown of the Florence County economy. Leaders in
the community like, Florence Co. Council John Floyd,
realize the expansion of the plant is a good thing, "In
fact, over the past five years, Honda has pumped more
than $110 million dollars into investments in Florence
County. And the company's decision to locate here helped
generate plenty of spin-off industry."
Touring the plant, Governor Mark Sanford asked
company officials to help sell the state to Honda
suppliers, "Honda came here. They in essence established
a beachhead. and they've been growing ever since. It
says a lot about the quality of the workers we have in
South Carolina."
Personal watercraft have come under fire for a
variety of reasons, such as noise, smoke and water
pollution. Honda's Blank said the PWCs produced in
Timmonsville are designed to address those problems,
"We're producing a product that is environmentally sound
and safe and also acceptable to people whether they're
on the water themselves, whether they live alongside."
Honda opened the Timmonsville plant in 1998 to make
terrain vehicles, the plant now has the capacity to turn
out a quarter of a million ATVs annually.
By Jack
Kuenzie
Posted 7:50pm by Andrew
Pierrotti
