Subic Bay Freeport – Japanese firm Sanyo Denki Philippines, Inc. has formally launched its P2.3 billion Phase 4 Expansion Project at the Subic Techno Park (STEP) here last March 22.
According to Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Chairman and Administrator Eduardo Jose L. Aliño, the P2.3-billion Phase 4 expansion project includes the construction of a fourth factory building.
He added that the expansion project will require an additional 1,500 workers to manufacture uninterrupted power supplies (UPS), cooling fans, servo amplifiers, and stepping motors.
Aliño led the blessing and inauguration ceremony held inside the company’s grounds along with Sanyo Denki Philippines, Inc. Chairman Chihiro Nakayama, Director Koichi Uchibori, and President and CEO Hirokazu Takeuchi.
Takeuchi expressed his gratitude to the SBMA for its support in the expansion plans of the Japanese 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 Commision on January 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 posted 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.