Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. and Yanmar Diesel Engine Co., Ltd. reach agreement for establishment of FRP hull manufacturing joint venture

Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. (hereinafter "Yamaha"; President, Toru Hasegawa; Iwata City, Shizuoka Prefecture) and Yanmar Diesel Engine Co., Ltd. (hereinafter "Yanmar"; President, Takehito Yamaoka; Kita-ku, Osaka Prefecture) have reached an agreement establishing a joint venture for the production of fiberglass-reinforced plastic (FRP) pleasure boats, fishing boats, and other products. The company will be known as Y² Marine Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (President, Soichi Sasagawa; Higashi-Kunisaki-gun, Oita Prefecture.)

The new joint venture is to be established on April 15, with total paid-in capital of 10 million yen, half of which will be provided by each company.

Yamaha and Yanmar will transfer to Y² Marine Manufacturing their stock holdings in two subsidiaries that manufacture FRP fishing and pleasure boats. In the arrangement, Yamaha Amakusa Works Co., Ltd. (President, Masanao Kotani; Amakusa-gun, Kumamoto Prefecture) and Yanmar Shipbuilding & Engineering Co., Ltd. (President, Haruyoshi Ueda; Oku-gun, Okayama Prefecture) will become subsidiaries of Y² Marine Manufacturing by autumn 2002.

The joint venture's projected sales and production figures for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2004 are 8 billion yen and 2,300 units, respectively. Y² Marine Manufacturing aims to become one of Japan's leading FRP-hull manufacturers (a Super Hull Center), both in terms of its production scale and technology. In the future, the new company anticipates producing hulls under contract and in original equipment manufacturing (OEM) arrangements with other boat manufacturers in Japan, besides Yamaha and Yanmar.

Y² Marine Manufacturing will strive to continuously supply high-quality, attractive products to its customers. To this end, the new venture will take measures such as assigning different tasks to each plant, and promoting joint hull development. It will also standardize parts and raw material specifications, in the move to enhance profitability and cost reduction by making effective use of the management resources and other advantages offered by both companies. Furthermore, the new venture will promote the development of recyclable hulls, and technology to reduce harmful emissions during production processes.

Meanwhile, Yamaha and Yanmar will work on product sales and planning for their respective brands, aiming to maintain their competitive relationship in the market.

In the Japan's marine product market, sales have remained sluggish, due to the prolonged recession. The gross domestic demand (*1) for pleasure boats in the year 2000 fell to 4,000 units, down from 8,000 units in 1996. However, the popularity of marine leisure activities, such as sport fishing and family cruising, has been increasing. The total number of compact boat operator's licenses has been increasing by approximately 70,000 annually (*2), reaching 2.71 million as of the end of March 2001. Furthermore, many local governments are stepping up their construction plans for berthing and storage facilities. A further slight increase in the marine leisure population can be expected in the future.