Honda Lands Big in Indiana

A $550 million Honda Motor Co. assembly plant will help the Japanese automaker meet a growing North American hunger for its cars and help invigorate a state hit hard by manufacturing job losses, officials and analysts said.

The southeastern Indiana plant _ part of a $1.18 billion global expansion _ eventually will produce 200,000 vehicles annually, increasing Honda's North American production to 1.6 million a year.

"We believe that the great state of Indiana has what we need to continue that success: an outstanding community of people, excellent transportation systems and the necessary infrastructure to support industry," Koichi Kondo, president of American Honda Motor Co., said during Wednesday's announcement in Greensburg.

Four other states _ Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois _ vied for the plant and its 2,000 jobs after Honda announced in May it would build a plant in the Midwest.

But Indiana, which has lost 98,000 industrial jobs since 2000, persuaded the company to build on 1,700 acres west of Greensburg, midway between Indianapolis and Cincinnati on Interstate 74.

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Needless to say, my home state (Ohio) did not win the deal. My congratulations to Indiana!