Taiwan Honda to Suspend Production Starting on Dec. 15

Taipei, Dec. 7, 2011 (CENS)--Mainly affected by the flood crisis in Thailand, Taiwan Honda Co., a large-sized automaker on the island, has announced a suspension of production scheduled to begin on December 15.

Taiwanese parts suppliers contracted by Taiwan Honda indicated that they have been told to halt delivery since the beginning of October, mainly because, they stated, the automaker has been fretted by short supply of parts imported from Thailand.

In fact, Taiwan Honda already cut its output in the past few months, in hopes of reducing inventory consumption to keep its production lines of CR-V, Accord, Civic and Fit rolling till the resumption of supply from Thailand.

However, as the persistent floods in the country have brought worse-than-expected impact to local industries and almost paralyzed local supply chains, Taiwan Honda has been running out of its inventories of imported parts and thus is forced to suspend its production starting December 15.

Taiwan Honda, which has yet to decide when to end the planned suspension, has confirmed its last shipment of about 300 new cars before the planned factory lockout on Dec. 15, and will also postpone the launch of the next-generation Civic sedan, which was originally scheduled for early 2012.

It seems that misfortune hasn't come alone to Taiwan Honda so far this year, getting in its way of becoming one of top three suppliers on the island. The automaker has just resumed its production to a full capacity since August after three months of output reduction following the March 11 massive earthquake occurring in northeastern Japan. But, the company is now encountering another irresistible threat of the ongoing floods in Thailand, thus is forced to suspend its production for a time.

Dampened by shortage of parts supply resulting from the abovementioned natural disasters, the Taiwan-based automaker has admitted that it will produce only about 20,000 units of various cars in 2011, 10,000 units less than the goal set early in the year.