By Khettiya Jittapong

The Thai unit of Honda Motor said on Wednesday it planned to invest more than 20 billion baht ($673 million) to build a new assembly plant and expand its existing facility in Thailand to tap strong domestic demand and exports.

About 17.15 billion baht would be used to build the new plant in the eastern province of Prachinburi, which will have a production capacity of 120,000 units per year and is expected to start operations in 2015, it said in a statement.

Another 2.91 billion baht would be used to expand its existing plant in the central province of Ayutthaya, which was hit by severe floods in 2011.

Its combined production capacity for the two plants would reach 420,000 units per year in 2015, it said.

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