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.

Honda Malaysia plant temporary shutdown

Honda Malaysia halts production and sources parts suppliers

Petaling Jaya, 25th October 2011 – Honda Malaysia Sdn Bhd (“Honda Malaysia” or the “Company”) announces that it will halt production in Pagoh Plant, Melaka from today onward due to parts shortage caused by the floods in Thailand. The floods have caused a huge number of factories in the supply chain to shut down, which include Honda Automobile (Thailand) Co., Ltd. and other major suppliers who supply parts to Honda Malaysia. The Company has been actively accessing the situation and its parts suppliers’ recovery. Honda Malaysia is also studying the feasibility of sourcing parts from other countries until its suppliers’ production in Thailand returns to normal.

“We announce with regret that we have to temporary halt production in Pagoh Plant, in Melaka due to parts shortage. We apologize for the delay of delivery and we appreciate the understanding of our customers. We are doing all we that can within our capacity to recover the production here in Malaysia as soon as possible,” said Mr. Yoichiro Ueno, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Honda Malaysia.

“The good news is that all our CBU models such as Insight, Stream and Freed are not affected, except for Jazz that is imported from Thailand, which we have sufficient stock to fulfill the current market demand,” he added.

Asian Honda Motor Co., Ltd. has recently donated 100 million baht (RM10 million) to Thai Red Cross Society to help flood victims in Thailand. Honda Malaysia will keep its customers informed of the plant’s progress and it looks forward to bringing good news to the customers.

Flood in Thailand : Official Honda Malaysia statement

Honda Malaysia informs effects of plant suspension in Thailand

Petaling Jaya, 13^th September 2011 – Honda Automobile (Thailand) Co., Ltd. (“HATC”, Ayutthaya plant) is forced to halt production due to severe floods that are hitting Thailand now. Honda Malaysia Sdn. Bhd. (“Honda Malaysia” or “the Company”) today informs its customers of the effect of the shutdown on Malaysia’s plant.

“We would like to express our deepest condolences to the flood victims in Thailand and we hope that the country would make prompt recovery from the damages imposed by the natural disaster,” said Mr. Yoichiro Ueno, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Honda Malaysia.

The suspension of HATC’s plant production in Ayutthaya area has an inevitable impact on Honda Malaysia’s production as HATC, along with its suppliers in the same region whose operations are also suspended, provides considerable number of parts for the Malaysian CKD (complete knocked down) models namely City, Civic, Accord and CR-V.

Since this Monday, Honda Malaysia has reduced its output in Melaka to prolong the production using on-hand stock. “We regret that there will be delay in product delivery as the production in our plant slows down due to the suspension of parts supply. Currently, the delivery timing for all our CBU (complete built-up) units are not affected,” Mr. Yoichiro added.

“At the time of statement, the HATC remains flooded and it is unapproachable. This is making it difficult for us to estimate the time of recovery. However, we will assess the situation closely on a daily basis and hope for the best though we foresee the recovery may take longer than we originally expected. We would like to thank our customers for their understanding and support and we will continue to provide the best products and services despite the challenging situation the company is facing.”