Honda to sell Thai-made bikes in Japan to cut costs-Nikkei

Aug 6 (Reuters) - Honda Motor Co (7267.T), the world's top motorcycle maker, plans to import Thailand-made bikes to sell in Japan, where production costs are rising, the Nikkei business daily reported.

From next year, Honda is likely to start shipping 250cc engine bikes from Thailand, where the automaker produces three times as many motorcycles as in Japan, the paper said.

Honda is considering to sell the imported 250cc motorbikes for about 400,000 yen ($4,220), less than the 550,000 yen price for the Japan-made ones, the paper said. In February, Honda had told Reuters that it would look to cut costs by building vehicles more efficiently and cheaply.

The strategy put forth at the time was to produce most of the parts for high-volume, 100-125cc commuter bikes in just three countries and ship them to assembly sites around the world such as those in Brazil, China, India, Thailand and Japan.

The motorbikes produced in Thailand center on 100cc models, and Honda plans to broaden its midsize offerings there, the Nikkei reported.

($1=94.78 yen) (Reporting by Savio D'Souza in Bangalore; Editing by Anil D'Silva)