Honda Cars to reduce domestic production in half temporarily

MANILA, Philippines - Honda Cars Philippines Inc. (HCPI) will cut in half its local production temporarily as a result of the volatile situation in Japan and consequent reduction of parts supply from Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

In a statement, HCPI said it is temporarily reducing by 50 percent its production volume from April 2011. Meanwhile, Honda will closely monitor the situation and strive to resume normal production operations the soonest.

HCPI manufactures Civic and City in their Sta. Rosa plant while the CRV, Accord and Jazz are all imported from Thailand.

The local production of Honda averages at 11,000 to 12,000 units per year for the past three years. This year, the company is looking at maintaining this level. The total production capacity of Honda’s Laguna plant is 15,000 units per year.

In the statement, Honda said teams throughout Asia and Oceania are working diligently to overcome the temporary parts flow issues and minimize the impact on Honda associates, dealers and customers.

Honda said they will resume production of finished automobiles at Sayama Plant at Saitama Factory (Sayama, Saitama) and Suzuka Factory (Suzuka, Mie) on Monday, April 11, 2011. This means all Honda production plants in Japan will be in operation as of that date.

Honda also resumed production and shipment of component parts for use in production in regions outside Japan yesterday.

However, as the situation with parts supply remains fluid, production of component parts and vehicles at Honda plants will resume at approximately 50 percent of the original production plan at the outset. Honda will carefully monitor the situation and manage its operations accordingly.

Honda said most of our Japan-based suppliers are making progress to restart production, and many either have or are ready to resume parts production, however, there are a few suppliers that have yet to resolve the challenge to resume their production.

In those cases, Honda is working with its suppliers to help reestablish their operations, while evaluating other possible sources for those parts in the supply chain.