Shinji Aoyama, chief officer, regional operations (Asia & Oceania), Honda Motor Company on Wednesday said Honda could overtake former partner Hero to become the largest two-wheeler maker in India by 2020.

Aoyama said, “2020 could be a possible year for us to become number one.”

Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI) on Wednesday commissioned the fourth assembly line at its manufacturing facility in Narsapura (Karnataka) turning it into the largest plant among Honda’s two-wheeler operations globally. The Narsapura plant can produce 2.4 million two-wheelers annually.

With this latest capacity expansion of 600,000 units, HMSI now has totalled annual production capacity of 6.4 million units across four plants in Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Karnataka.

[easy_chart chart_id=’12565′]

India now has become the largest production hub for two-wheelers for Honda globally.

In terms of sales, India overtook Indonesia to emerge as the largest market for Honda’s two-wheeler operations last fiscal. India contributed 28% to Honda’s global two-wheeler sales in the last financial year.
Aoyama informed, “The growing Indian 2W market is top priority for Honda. To better meet dynamic market demand and to prepare for future opportunities, today Honda has inaugurated the fourth assembly line in Karnataka plant.

Aoyama informed, “The growing Indian 2W market is top priority for Honda. To better meet dynamic market demand and to prepare for future opportunities, today Honda has inaugurated the fourth assembly line in Karnataka plant. With this, the Narsapura plant will now produce 24 lac two-wheelers annually. This makes Narsapura the world’s largest two-wheeler plant for Honda and also India the number one production base for Honda globally.”

USA
111,597

.fl-node- .fl-module-content .fl-number-before-text,
.fl-node- .fl-module-content .fl-number-after-text {
color: #2ba9e0;
}

CANADA
6,330

.fl-node- .fl-module-content .fl-number-before-text,
.fl-node- .fl-module-content .fl-number-after-text {
color: #2ba9e0;
}

JAPAN
5,038

.fl-node- .fl-module-content .fl-number-before-text,
.fl-node- .fl-module-content .fl-number-after-text {
color: #2ba9e0;
}

Honda commissions fourth assembly line in Karnataka

The new BMW Z4 has been officially teased for the first time, with a single, shadowy image of the new sports car, plus a promised unveiling next month.

The new Audi TT and Mercedes SLC rival will make its debut on 17 August. While that rules out a Frankfurt Motor Show reveal, it matches up nicely with the 2017 edition of the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance and Monterey Car Week.

Best convertible cars to buy now

.fl-node- h2.vamtam-heading * {
color: #1a31af !important;
}

With BMW choosing Pebble Beach to debut the Z4, it’s likely that we’ll see the car in concept form rather than the finished product – full debuts are few and far between at the Monterey Car Week, though concept vehicles, one-offs and special edition cars often break cover.

Therefore, we could see BMW unfurl the new Z4 in a similar manner to the all-new 8 Series, with a revealing concept vehicle to whet the appetite for the production model.Our exclusive images show how the new two-seat roadster could look when it arrives. It has already been spotted testing on multiple occasions, with the most recent spyshots showing it winter testing with a slightly more revealing disguise compared to earlier mules lapping the Nurburgring.

The new Z4 Roadster will replace the ageing second-generation model, in production since 2009, and be a fresh rival for the likes of the Porsche 718 Boxster, as well as a reborn Toyota Supra currently being developed in parallel and set to use the same platform.

It’s likely the new car will ditch the current Z4’s heavy metal folding roof for a lighter, more traditional fabric hood. This could mean it’s being aimed more towards the Porsche 718 Boxster and away from softer, more refined cars like the Mercedes SLC. The soft-top will gain a rear window for production.

An insider told us that “this car will use the same lightweight body construction as the i3 and i8. And even with that type of construction, you can expect a price around the same as that of the current Z4.”

The familiar set-back cabin, pert rear-end and long bonnet remain on the new model and the kidney grille looks to be larger than ever.

Mounted behind the front axle will be a range of BMW’s ‘TwinPower’ turbo petrol engines which will be offered in both four and six-cylinder forms. Expect at least 200bhp from base models, with top-end turbocharged straight-six variants nudging 300bhp. As before, all cars will be rear-wheel drive.

The Z4 will also use the same rear axle design as the M3 and M4, and it’s likely that a full M version will follow within a year, possibly using the M2’s 365bhp 3.0-litre straight-six.The Z4 also provides a base for Toyota’s new super-coupe. Rumours suggest it will bring back the iconic ‘Supra’ name, though unlike the Z4 Roadster it’ll be a hard-top coupe, influenced by the FT-1 concept from 2014.

The Toyota version has potential to receive a plug-in hybrid model, with electric motors boosting output instead of a turbocharger.

Oil futures climbed toward the $50 level on Thursday, driven higher by a bullish outlook following weekly U.S. inventory data, but market participants expected the commodity to trade in a narrow range ahead of a OPEC meeting next week.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in September CLU7, -0.67% climbed 23 cents, or 0.5%, to $49.84 a barrel, after trading as low as $49.12 earlier in the session.

October Brent crude LCOV7, -0.29% on London’s ICE Futures exchange rose 38 cents, or 0.7%, to $52.74, bouncing back from a loss of as much as 0.9% earlier on Thursday.Oil has experienced fitful trade over the past several weeks, but has managed to drift higher within range of its 200-day moving average at $49.45 a barrel, as investors have grappled with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’s attempts to cap global output, along with other major producers. U.S. shale producers have been the biggest headwind to OPEC’s efforts to stem output. Meanwhile, an agreement led by the cartel and major crude producers is set to expire at the end of the first quarter in 2018.

We are going to be relatively range-bound

“I think we are going to be relatively range-bound unless we see some kind of weather or political event,” said Tariq Zahir, managing member at commodity-trading advisor Tyche Capital Advisors.

Zahir said oil futures would be sensitive to any news, given its recent uptrend. He said U.S. traded oil has the potential to hit $51, if any supply disruptions or bullish news emerges.

Late Wednesday, the EIA reported a 1.5 million barrel drop in crude inventories last week, below analysts’ expectations. However, “a strong increase in demand was enough to appease the bullish investors,” said ANZ Bank. Refiners’ capacity utilization jumped to 95.4% last week, the government also said.

American Petroleum Institute out on Tuesday

“I think we are going to be relatively range-bound unless we see some kind of weather or political event,” said Tariq Zahir, managing member at commodity-trading advisor Tyche Capital Advisors.

Zahir said oil futures would be sensitive to any news, given its recent uptrend. He said U.S. traded oil has the potential to hit $51, if any supply disruptions or bullish news emerges.

Late Wednesday, the EIA reported a 1.5 million barrel drop in crude inventories last week, below analysts’ expectations. However, “a strong increase in demand was enough to appease the bullish investors,” said ANZ Bank. Refiners’ capacity utilization jumped to 95.4% last week, the government also said.

ANZ sees tightness coming in the fourth quarter

Data from the American Petroleum Institute out on Tuesday showed stockpiles unexpectedly increased last week.

The mixed signals on U.S. supply come as market players globally await signs that production caps led by OPEC and Russia are making notable dents into still-historically high global supplies. ANZ sees tightness coming in the fourth quarter, pushing oil prices into the high-$50s.

Among refined products, September gasoline RBU7, -0.79% was up 0.2% at $1.649 a gallon.

Meanwhile, natural gas for September NGU17, -0.18% climbed 0.4% to $2.821 per million British thermal units.
a few.

The 3.1 million-lb scaffolding system is contributing to the replacement of the 50-year-old Gerald Desmond Bridge

Construction crews lifted a massive 3.1 million-lb piece of scaffolding on Tuesday in Long Beach, Calif., as part of the construction of a bridge connecting Long Beach to Terminal Island.

Workers in hard hats looked to the sky as a crew hoisted the $10 million steel piece of equipment designed in Norway and constructed in China, then moved by a super-powered jack. Longer than two football fields, the scaffolding system eliminates less reliable, traditional wooden scaffolding systems that can be more easily knocked out by wind or an earthquake.

1

.fl-node- h1.vamtam-heading * {
color: #1a31af !important;
}

Construction crews

.fl-node- h3.vamtam-heading * {
color: #1a31af !important;
}

Construction crews lifted a massive 3.1 million-lb piece of scaffolding on Tuesday in Long Beach, Calif., as part of the construction of a bridge connecting Long Beach to Terminal Island.

2

.fl-node- h1.vamtam-heading * {
color: #1a31af !important;
}

Workers

.fl-node- h3.vamtam-heading * {
color: #1a31af !important;
}

Workers in hard hats looked to the sky as a crew hoisted the $10 million steel piece of equipment designed in Norway and constructed in China, then moved by a super-powered jack. Longer than two football fields, the scaffolding system eliminates less reliable, traditional wooden scaffolding systems that can be more easily knocked out by wind or an earthquake.

3

.fl-node- h1.vamtam-heading * {
color: #1a31af !important;
}

The equipment

.fl-node- h3.vamtam-heading * {
color: #1a31af !important;
}

Already the equipment has helped build the westbound approach to the bridge, which will replace the 50-year old Gerald Desmond Bridge. The total cost of the project has reached $1.5 billion.

4

.fl-node- h1.vamtam-heading * {
color: #1a31af !important;
}

Cable-stayed bridge

.fl-node- h3.vamtam-heading * {
color: #1a31af !important;
}

The cable-stayed bridge is touted by city officials and developers as a project that will redefine the Long Beach skyline, with two massive towers where cables will string out alongside the six-lane, 1.5-mile roadway.

5

.fl-node- h1.vamtam-heading * {
color: #1a31af !important;
}

Construction

.fl-node- h3.vamtam-heading * {
color: #1a31af !important;
}

Although construction is more than halfway complete, the bridge is one year behind schedule and $500 million over budget. The eastbound lanes and the main span still need to be finished before cars can barrel along the highway. It is scheduled to open in late 2018.