Honda to resume production end of March
Honda Automobile (Thailand) Co Ltd will resume the production at its Ayutthaya assembly plant by the end of March 2012, with the delivery of new cars from the plant to customers starting in April, 2012.
The plant at Rojana Industrial Park was inundated on October 5. Here, Honda can produce 240,000 units per annum.
Until production resumes, the company will import Honda Jazz and Accord models from Japan for local sales under the Office of Industrial Economics’ special import guidelines, the company said in a statement released today.
In Japan, Honda Motor Co announced today that its net profit dropped 41.2 per cent from a year earlier to 47.6 billion yen (625 million dollars) for the October-to-December quarter due to the strong yen and flooding losses in Thailand.
"The year 2011 was challenging for Honda, as we had to deal with two major natural disasters that affected our operations; the tsunami in Japan in March and the flooding in Thailand during the second half of the year. In October 2011, we had to temporarily suspended production at our facilities in Rojana Industrial Park, which inevitably impacted unit sales. Honda has put the utmost effort into restoring our operation. We have now reached the point where we have finished repairing and installing production equipment and are now running thorough system checks," said Pitak Pruittisarikorn, executive vice president of Honda Automobile (Thailand).
The production of parts for export to Honda's plants in other ASEAN countries will also resume. Honda expects that these plants, which suspended production due to a shortage of parts caused by the flooding situation in Thailand, will start normal operations in April.
Following the recent announcement by the Office of Industrial Economics about tax exemptions for imported automobiles, the company has imported Honda Jazz and Accord models from Japan to replaced units that could not be produced while the Ayutthaya assembly plant is closed. These vehicles will be delivered to customers starting by the end of February.
While thanking customers for their morale support and trust, Honda announced that it would complete the scrapping of 1,055 flood-damaged cars and parts by February 25.
