First Outboard Lines-Off at Kumamoto Products

On Sept. 7, 2000 the first Yamaha outboard motor came off the line at Yamaha Motor Company's new outboard motor manufacturing and sales company, Yamaha Kumamoto Products Co., Ltd. (Yatsushiro City, Kumamoto Pref., President; Shinya Sato). Until now, Yamaha brand outboard motors have been manufactured domestically at Sanshin Industries Co., Ltd. (Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka Pref., President; Hirshi Ohno) and in Europe at MBK Industrie S.A. (Saint Quentin, France, President; Teruyuki Ando). The start of shipments of finished outboards at Kumamoto Products expands the Yamaha production base to three factories, two in Japan and one in Europe.

Since the forming of Kumamoto Products in Nov. 1998, the factory has engaged in the casting, machining and painting of functional components for outboards to be sent to Sanshin Industries. With the recent completion of an assembly line the factory will be producing approximately 40,000 units in the first year of 2-stroke outboards ranging from 2 hp up to 55 hp. The factory boasts state-of-the-art equipment and facilities for integrated manufacturing activities involving casting, machining, painting and assembly on a flexible and highly productive system. Plans call for the factory to be manufacturing 100,000 units annually two years from now in 2002. This will bring total planned shipments from the three factories, Sanshin, MBK and Kumamoto, to 300,000 units a year.

It is estimated that the worldwide annual demand for outboards is about 800,000 units, and slight growth is expected to continue, mainly in the industrialized nations. Yamaha presently produces about 270,000 outboards a year, and with environment-friendly models including our expanding lineup of 4-strokes and 2-stroke models with new Yamaha-exclusive technologies like our HPDI (High Pressure Direct Injection), our sales are growing especially in markets like the USA. Meanwhile in the commercial fishing and transport industries of the nations of Latin America, Southeast Asia and Africa, there continues to be strong demand for 2-stroke outboards with their inherently simple structure and powerful performance.

Under Yamaha's new three-factory system, Sanshin Industries will be producing primarily larger 2-stroke and 4-stroke outboards, Kumamoto Products small to middle size 2-strokes and MBK mainly smaller 4-stroke models in a system that will enable us to meet market needs worldwide more quickly and in ways that bring even greater customer satisfaction.