It’s a mixed motorcycle news day as reports of the continuing economic crisis and its effect on the European motorcycle market continue (Italy’s July motorcycles sales for 2011 are down 23 percent on last year), but now we get the announcement that Norton Motorcycles from the UK is receiving a government grant.

Getting the Norton brand off the ground and selling bikes is no easy task, and the trade loan from the UK government has been issued under the Exports Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme. The funds will go to increasing Norton production to 1,000 units a year, but we’re guessing that they won’t be looking at Italy for high sales.

Under the agreement, Norton will receive £625,000 (approx. €715,000) from the Santander bank to increase its production. The export financing is also expected to provide more jobs as Norton expands its workforce to 60 full time staff by 2012. Head of Norton Motorcycles, Stuart Garner, says:

Continue reading: Norton Motorcycles gets British government export grant

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Suzuki Motor Corporation has just founded new production facilities in the Phillipines in an investment of 2.1 billion Yen - about 19 million euros. The new Phillipines motorcycle production plant will start operating in June 2012 under the Suzuki Phillipines Incorporated business. It’s SMC’s production branch for the country and originally started production back in 1985.

The new plant should increase Suzuki’s production from the 85,000 units made from April 2010 to March 2011 and give it a larger share of the Phillipines motorcycle market, which registered 760,000 units in 2010. That’s a year-on-year growth of 19 percent. Suzuki’s new production plant will have a capacity of about 200,000 units a year.

With news that Honda is expanding its production in Vietnam, developments that could lead Bajaj to a 49 percent stake in KTM and Yamaha pulling out of the world Superbike championship - following Ducati in 2010 and Kawasaki from the MotoGP in 2008, it seems that it could be Asia to save the world motorcycle markets at this stage. Bajaj and KTM have managed a joint production effort with the KTM 125 Duke, but where are the high profile Asian riders (not just from Japan) and more joint product development…?

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After criticism that the Ducati Diavel was built just for the US motorcycle market (and of course, it was pretty much), it seems that Ducati’s investment in the model has paid off with its clever guess that the Diavel would drive home the brand for American buyers. In the middle of an ongoing economic downturn, Ducati is enjoying a small heyday in the US, releasing its second quarter sales figures for 2011.

And what figures indeed! The company reports an increase on year-to-date sales of 63 percent thanks to the highly popular Ducati Multistrada and the above-mentioned Diavel. The models make for an interesting duo at the head of sales, with the two opposing styles indicating that Ducati isn’t just relying on its brand new cruiser to appeal to the American motorcycle enthusiast.

The Superbike 848 EVO and the Monster 1200 round-off a more affordable range for Ducati and here in Europe, we’re interested to see if this new US success for Ducati produces any more product development or design headed our way from over the pond, while Americans are looking to see if Ducati won’t make greater investments on their soil, too.

Source | A&R

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The global motorcycle market is far from healthy with falling sales in the USA and Europe. If it weren’t for countries like India, Brazil and the pacific region in general, there wouldn’t be much keeping us afloat right now. With the big Japanese four in crisis mode, companies like Honda are looking for other solutions to boost production and sales.

It is turning to building a third Honda motorcycle factory in India, after already announcing an expansion in the second factory. The Indian motorcycle market is the second biggest for Honda after China. It sold 1.5 million motorcycles in India last year - a 40 percent increase on 2009 which represents a small slice of the total 11.3 million bikes sold in India in 2010.

Honda has been enjoying this growing trend for ten years and now plans to reach production of four million units across its three facilities. The first Honda factory in India is working at full capacity, producing 1.6 million motorcycles, the second factory is expanding and the third is under construction. It should be completed by 2013 and should have a capacity of 1.2 million units - the same as the second factory.

The third Honda factory is being built in Bangalore in the south of India to improve coverage of the Indian territory. A new Honda CB Unicorn Dazzler will appear. It’s a 150cc bike being built for young customers, and larger numbers of the Honda CBR250R will also be rolled out.

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The KTM-Bajaj project has seen the Indian company slowly acquire more KTM stock over time, with a recent 1.21 percent acquisition taking it to a total of 39.3 percent ownership of KTM stock. Majority shareholder CROSS has a 50.1 percent stake in the company and has declared that it intends to remain the majority shareholder.

While takeover rumours have surfaced yet, strong interest from Bajaj means that we wouldn’t be surprised to see a takeover move from it in the future. The company has continued making offers to smaller KTM shareholders and has stockpiled its share of the company in doing so.

Bajaj first purchased a 14.5 percent share of KTM stock in 2007 and has more than doubled that since. Being the second largest shareholder in the company has so far proved a mutually beneficial move for both companies, with plenty of collaboration occurring. Most notably, the KTM 125 Duke was fruit of working together. Where to from here…?

Source | A&R

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Yamaha has officially announced that it will be closing down its Spanish factory in Palau-Solità Plegamans and moving to Saint-Quentin in northern France, where they have another factory.

The move is due to a “global redefinition plan” and has been influenced by a drop in sales (-47% in the last three years). The decision to move production to the French plant was based on “the need for greater efficiency in production and logistics and economic sustainability” since the recession had led the company into a situation of “excessive production capacity.”

Yamaha will still keep its commercial headquarters in Palau, but with yesterday’s announcment that Spain’s unemployment rate is at a record 20.33%, the addition of another 420 workers loosing their jobs will hit hard the already suffering economy, however we doubt that these workers will call on Jorge Lorenzo to help them try to save their jobs as the Italians tried to do with Valentino Rossi.

Source | industryweek.com

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