Howa Canada to open auto parts plant in Alliston, Ont.
Canadian Plastics
AutomotiveFacility will create 40 jobs and produce interior trim components for Honda.
Japan-based automotive textile manufacturing firm Howa Textile Industry Co. is opening a new automotive trim plant in Alliston, Ont.
The Howa Canada plant will supply trim components for the 2016 Civic built at the Honda assembly plant and create 40 jobs.
In November 2014, the Ontario government recently gave Howa a grant of more than $1 million from the Southwestern Ontario Development Fund.
The investment will support facility upgrades and specialized equipment, according to a provincial government press release. Howa has operations in Asia and the U.S., but this is the company’s first manufacturing facility in Canada.
The Civic has been Canada’s top-selling car for the past 17 years.
Howa supplies interior trim to many Japanese vehicle manufacturers, including Honda, Mitsubishi, Hino and Toyota.
Alliston, about 90 kilometres north of Toronto, is the first Honda plant in the world to launch the next generation Civic into mass production and will develop the processes and tooling trials that will form the manufacturing base at all Honda plants worldwide, Howa said.
