Yamaha Motor Co. is expanding U.S. production of all-terrain vehicles as a weaker dollar and higher transport costs make manufacturing the off-road products in their biggest market more enticing than building them in Japan.
The company was to announce Wednesday plans to make 80 percent of its all-terrain vehicles at its factory in Newnan, Georgia, said Mike Martinez, general manager for ATVs for Yamaha Motor Co. USA. Remaining production will move to the U.S. from Japan in the next two years.
"We wanted to put the production into the market" with the biggest demand, Martinez said. The move, disclosed in February 2010, is unrelated to the March 11 earthquake, he said.
Yamaha Motors' decision highlights an emerging trend, as southern U.S. states become "some of the cheapest locations for manufacturing in the developed world," according to a report by the Boston Consulting Group on May 5.
"As a result of the changing economics, you're going to see a lot more products 'Made in the USA' in the next five years," Harold L. Sirkin, a partner at the firm, said in a statement accompanying the report. "For some, the economics have already reached the tipping point."
Yamaha Motor of Iwata, Shizuoka Prefecture, is the world's second-biggest maker of power-sports products such as motorcycles, watercraft and snowmobiles. It has made products in the U.S. since 1986, and began manufacturing ATVs in 1998.
At the factory about 64 km southwest of Atlanta, the move will "save" 90 jobs and may lead to 200 workers being hired back, Martinez said.