By HENRY EMPEÑO | June 21, 2022

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT – Nidec Subic Philippines Corporation, a Japanese firm manufacturing speed reducer gears for robotic applications, is set to undertake a P4-billion expansion program here in the next three years and expects to quadruple its workforce under the project.

This was disclosed by company president Takeshi Yamamoto and Nidec administration adviser Toshihiko Kasahara in a meeting with Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Chairman and Administrator Rolen C. Paulino Sr. recently.

The expansion project will entail the production of flexwave, which is said to be a mid-sized speed reducer used in the manufacture of power assist suits. The market for this product, particularly in the nursing industry, is expected to reach 12 billion yen and to more than quintuple in the next five years, industry reports indicated.

Nidec officials said the expansion program will be in two phases: the first being the renovation of two company buildings at the Subic Techno Park, which is set to be finished in the third quarter of 2022; and the second, the completion of a new factory building by the end of this year.

The expansion is necessary, officials added, for the firm to fulfill its annual production target of 350,000 units, with all of the finished products exported to the United States, Europe, Japan, Korea, China, India, and Brazil.

Paulino, meanwhile, commended Nidec’s plan to generate some 3,400 jobs under the expansion program, pointing out that this will increase the number of its workers from the current 625 to 4,028 once the expansion project is underway.

“Skilled workers from the Freeport’s adjacent communities are certainly in high demand,” the SBMA chief noted. “The SBMA will help in any way it can to provide the company the manpower needed for its expansion operation,” he added.

He also lauded Nidec Subic for its confidence with the SBMA and for choosing the Subic Bay Freeport for its expansion program. Nidec manufactures precision electronic equipment, direct-drive spindle motors, and specialized digital core parts for multimedia and also operates factories in Mandaluyong City and Biñan, Laguna.

The planned hiring of more workers is a huge turnaround for Nidec Subic, which retrenched 784 of its workers in January last year at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Then SBMA Chairman and Administrator Wilma T. Eisma said the retrenchment was just “a temporary setback that would allow the company to weather the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.”

The company did not close down altogether and retained 300 workers to maintain the company facilities at the Subic Techno Park here.

SBMA Labor Department data indicated that Nidec had a total of 1,444 workers on its payroll just before the January 2021 retrenchment. ~