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Honda To Restart Auto Production April 11
TOKYO (Nikkei)--With an end to stalled parts shipments in sight, Honda Motor Co. (7267) said Thursday it will resume making cars and trucks in Japan on April 11 after a roughly month-long shutdown.
Honda's Suzuka plant in Mie Prefecture will resume operations on April 11.
Honda will restart auto plants in Saitama and Mie prefectures and group production of minicars, bringing all of its domestic factories back online. A motorcycle factory in Kumamoto Prefecture has been running again since Monday.
Honda's automobile production came to a halt March 14 amid parts shortages caused by the disaster in eastern Japan. The company now expects to be able to procure some level of parts supplies. But ongoing constraints will keep factories operating at only about 50% for the time being, Honda said.
Mazda Motor Corp. (7261) will restart production of some models next week at its Hofu plant in Yamaguchi Prefecture, where operations have been on hold since Monday. Production at the company headquarters in Hiroshima, which had been running on parts in stock, will be scaled back to certain models for which parts can be procured.
Suzuki Motor Corp. (7269) will continue daytime-only production. Isuzu Motors Ltd. (7202) will restart truck production Tuesday at its Fujisawa plant in Kanagawa Prefecture.
Three weeks after an earthquake and tsunami battered the northeast, parts manufacturers are making progress restoring production and distribution, but supplies have yet to return to normal.
Auto industry leader Toyota Motor Corp. (7203) restarted production on a limited basis Monday, working from parts in inventory.
"It will take considerable time for procurement levels and the distribution network to really come back," says a senior executive.