Source: Honda plans new Ga. plant, expansion of Ala. facility

<p>Honda Motor Co. has plans to build an auto parts plant in Georgia that's expected to create several hundred jobs in the area, according to a source familiar with the project.</p><p>The unidentified source told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for its Tuesday editions that the company also will be expanding its Lincoln, Ala., plant, located about 45 miles from the Georgia state line.</p><p>Gov. Sonny Perdue and Koichi Kondo, president of Honda's American operations, were expected to announce the projects later Tuesday at an Atlanta news conference. Neither Honda nor state officials would discuss specifics Monday.</p><p>"They're planning something that's good news for Alabama," Lincoln Mayor Lew Watson said, without offering details. "It's good for Georgia that Honda picked Lincoln."</p><p>Automotive News, a trade publication, reported on its Web site that the Georgia project would be a component manufacturing plant.</p><p>The facility likely will employ fewer than 500 workers, the Journal-Constitution's source said.</p><p>The Lincoln plant's expansion would be its second since it opened in 2001. A $425 million expansion in 2002 doubled its size to 2.8 million square feet and doubled production capacity to 300,000 engines and automobiles annually. The plant currently employs 4,300 and builds Odyssey minivans and Pilot SUVs.</p><p>Honda also is planning two new supplier logistics centers in Alabama and Tennessee to serve the Lincoln plant, according to Automotive News.</p><p>___</p><p>HASH(0x2865a08)</p>

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