Honda Resumes Production at Automobile Plant in Thailand

March 26, 2012 - Honda Automobile (Thailand) Co., Ltd. (HATC), the Honda automobile production subsidiary in Thailand (headquarter in the Rojana Industrial Park, Ayutthaya), today resumed production of automobiles after suspending production since October 4, 2011, due to the damage sustained from the flooding in Thailand.

Since completing the drainage of the flood water at the end of November 2011, HATC had been exerting company-wide efforts to clean, inspect, repair and replace plant facilities and manufacturing equipment, which were damaged by the flood. After approximately four months of such restoration efforts, HATC is now ready to resume automobile productions at its plant. HATC is planning to hold a ceremony on March 31, 2012 to commemorate the resumption of production.

Honda has been supplying automobiles alternatively from Japan to some countries in the Asia Oceania Region including Thailand, which were impacted by the disruption of production due to the flooding. However, as of today, all production plants have resumed production and are expected to normalize in April. For all other Honda production operations outside of the Asia Oceania Region, the impact of the flooding in Thailand has already been resolved.

Positioning HATC as one of the most important production operations in the Asia/Oceania Region, Honda was totally committed to realizing the earliest possible recovery. Honda will maintain the same positioning of HATC in the future and further promote business operations in Thailand.

About Honda Automobile (Thailand) Co., Ltd.

Location:	Ayutthaya province, Thailand
Representative:	Hiroshi Kobayashi/President
Capital Investment:	5.46 billion baht
Capitalization Ratio:	75.94% Honda Motor Co., Ltd. 13.05% Asian Honda Motor Co., Ltd. 11.01% Others
Business Areas:	Production and sales of automobiles
Established:	December 2000
Employment:	Approximately 4,000 associates
Production Capacity:	240,000 units per year

Latest Update on Thai flood situation from Honda

The press release after the link is Honda's latest update on the flood situation in Thailand. The gist is that Honda have successfully cleared their facilities of flood water and is now in the painful and slow process of recovering the facility to operational status. It will probably take weeks before any of the facility can start again and months for them to recover to fully operational status.

The more important, good news is that Honda's Suzuka and Saitama plant in Japan will be restored to full capacity at the beginning of next week (Dec 5th) while the U.S. and Canada plants (6 in all affected) will restore fully capacity the day after tomorrow (Dec 1st). 

November 28, 2011 - Following is the most current information regarding the impact of the flooding in Thailand on Honda's operations. 

Flood water draining efforts were completed at Honda Automobile (Thailand) Co., Ltd. (HATC), the Honda automobile production subsidiary in Thailand (headquarter in the Rojana Industrial Park, Ayutthaya), and HATC today began its recovery efforts such as the cleaning of the facilities. Concerning the outlook for the resumption of production, HATC will continue its effort to confirm the overall impact to the facilities and carefully examine the situation. 

Suzuka Factory and Saitama Factory, Honda's automobile production plants in Japan, which had been making production adjustments since November 7, 2011 due to restricted parts supply from Thailand, will normalize production on December 5, 2011 as parts supply issues have been resolved to a certain level. 

Six automobile production plants in the U.S. and Canada, which had been making production adjustments since November 2, 2011, also due to restricted parts supply from Thailand, will normalize production on December 1, 2011 as parts supply issues have been resolved to a certain level. 

Concerning production plans from January 2012 onward, Honda will make decisions while carefully monitoring the parts supply situation.

Honda deeply regrets any inconvenience this may cause to our customers, and requests their understanding during these challenging times. Together with our suppliers, Honda is devoting all of our efforts to minimize the impact on our customers.

Update on Impact of flooding to Honda in Thailand

Honda has just provided an update on the situation in Thailand concerning the current flood situation. Read the official press release after the link.



November 14, 2011 - Following is the most current information regarding the impact of the flooding in Thailand on Honda's operations.

Thai Honda Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (Thai Honda), Honda's motorcycle and power products production subsidiary in Thailand (headquarter in Bangkok), which has suspended its motorcycle production since October 11 and power products production since October 6 due to parts supply disruptions, today resumes production of some motorcycle and power products models with the resumption of the parts supply. Thai Honda does not have any flood water on its property.

Honda Automobile (Thailand) Co., Ltd. (HATC), the Honda automobile production subsidiary in Thailand (headquarter in the Rojana Industrial Park, Ayutthaya), has suspended production since October 4, due to the parts supply disruptions. As of today, HATC does not have a clear outlook for when production will resume as flooding on its facilities has continued since October 8, 2011.

Concerning operations from today onward, Honda will make decisions while carefully monitoring the situation. Honda deeply regrets any inconvenience this may cause our customers, and requests their understanding during these challenging times. Honda and its suppliers are devoting all our efforts to minimize the impact on our customers.

Confirmed : Honda CR-V to be launched ON SCHEDULE in Decemeber for the U.S.A.

At our TOV forums, there are now confirmations from dealers that their stocks of the new 4G CR-V are en-route. This directly confirms that for the U.S. at least, the launch of the new CR-V will be on schedule, in the month of December (next month). 

What about Asia ? The flood situation in Thailand is definitely affecting all asian models. Initially it was revealed that there will be an MMC for the City next month and the new 9G Civic and 4G CR-V will debut in Asia early next year.

But, with the Honda facilities in Thailand now under more than 2 metres of water, it is a certainty that all activities related to asian models will be delayed. 

In fact the delays are affecting not only the new models but even productions of current models. Mr Yoichiro Ueno, CEO of Honda Malaysia has said that current stock are only enough for them to maintain supply till the end of this month. Thereafter, the Melaka factory will stop operations due to unavailability of critical components. 

Honda's first priority at the moment is to ensure that their employees are safe from any ill effects of the flood. Next would be to help ensure their suppliers are safe as well. There will be no layoffs but contracts for some short term employees will not be renewed as obviously there are no need for their services (the non renewal of short-term contracts is a normal thing in all industries. Everyone who accepts a short-term contracts knows this well and this renewal should not be twisted into a 'Honda is laying off people' rumour). 

Honda will try to source for parts from other places outside of Thailand but there are some critical items which is only available from Thailand. And at the moment, the flood is not only not showing signs of receding, it is in fact threatening parts of central Bangkok itself. Nevertheless, a friend who recently stopped over at Bangkok for his holiday at Bhutan, told me that once again, all the stories about Thailand seemingly drowning are partially exaggerations are over-hyped. He said that while there are indeed lots of dire concerns, life in Bangkok and many parts of Thailand are still going on as normal.

Things are still very uncertain at this moment and if I get any news, I will update here once I know of them.

Photos of flooded Honda factory in Thailand

TOVA reader/support 'Fish-Chan' posted some photos of the flooded HAT (Honda Automobile Thailand) factory on our TOV forums board. I thought those photos would be of interest to all Honda fans so I decided to publish them here. 

'Fish-Chan' did not indicate from where he sourced the photos from but I am sure once he reads this post, he will explain. In the meantime, many thanks to him for the photos as I am sure many Honda fans would be very curious on the extent of the impact the flood in Thailand has on a very unlucky Honda. First the great Tohoku earthquake in March, and now this great Thailand flood in October, both disasters inside a year.

The photos can be viewed after the jump, by clicking on the link below.

Click on each photo to view the full sized version.