Friday, November 4, 2011

News Update Thai floods force Honda Philippines to close

Japanese automaker Honda has suspended production at its Philippine plant because suppliers in flooded Thailand are unable to deliver parts, a company official said Thursday.

Honda Philippines shut its factory this week and will not re-open until it can find alternative suppliers to those in Thailand, human resources manager Joseph Tacorda said.

"At this point, we are still waiting for materials to come in from other manufacturing centres of Honda because Thailand has been cut off," Tacorda told AFP, adding it was not yet clear when fresh supplies would be delivered.

Honda Philippines, a subsidiary of Honda in Japan, assembles and distributes five vehicles locally, including the CR-V sport utility vehicle and the Accord coupe, according to the company's website.

Honda was the third biggest seller of cars in the Philippines in the first eight months of the year with 9,062 units sold, or 9.7 percent of the market, according to the local auto industry association.

Three months of unusually heavy rains and a failure to release enough water from dams early in the monsoon season have caused Thailand's worst floods in half a century, killing 437 people and submerging large parts of the country.

Honda had already announced on Monday that it would slash production at its North America plants by 50 percent this week because of the supply problems in Thailand.