Honda Motor Co. may suspend production at its plants in the United States in May because of the Great East Japan Earthquake, sources said.
Honda Motor Co. may suspend production at its plants in the United States in May because of the Great East Japan Earthquake, sources said.
Honda has already been forced to cut U.S. production by about 40 percent because of the failure of critical parts supplies from Japan in the aftermath of the March 11 temblor.
It now expects U.S. production to be only about 50 percent of normal levels by the end of this month and is considering temporarily shutting down its production lines in May, according to the sources. The United States is Honda's largest market, representing 30 percent of global unit sales.
Nissan Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. have already announced halts to production in North America in April. Honda's stoppage would be its first outside of Japan.
The company suspended operations at domestic factories following the quake but was able to continue production overseas by drawing on existing stocks of parts.
Its domestic factories resumed production of components for export earlier this month, but some engine and transmission components are still in short supply.
Honda believes the U.S. stoppages will be necessary from early May because of expected shortages of off-the-shelf parts, the sources said.
Takanobu Ito, the company's president, said Friday that it was aiming to restore production at its factories in Japan to pre-quake levels by July.
"We want to assist the recovery of parts suppliers by cooperating with other automakers," Ito told reporters. "I want to put them back to full production as soon as possible."
Honda will reopen its factories in Japan on Monday, but will initially operate them at about 50 percent of capacity.
Ito's comments came during an inspection of Honda R&D Co., a key car-development center in Haga, Tochigi Prefecture, that was badly hit by the quake, including the ceiling. Repair work is expected to continue for some time.
Of its staff of about 10,000 people, about 1,000 workers have been reassigned to R&D work at factories in Saitama and Mie prefectures.