Honda back in the driver's seat after lull

Honda back in the driver's seat after lull

Normal activity to be restored within weeks

All of Honda's factories in Ayutthaya have restarted and are expected to be back to normal within weeks, says Pitak Pruittisarikorn, an executive vice-president of Honda Automobile (Thailand).

Production at Honda's plants in the province resumed in low volume on Monday and will gradually rise until reaching the normal level of 1,000 units per day during the first two weeks of next month.

"We intend to accelerate production to clear the backlog of orders piled up before and after the floods in Thailand," said Mr Pitak.

The backlog reached 60,000 units covering all Honda models available in the Thai market, with 60% of orders for the flagship City subcompact.

Other models were the Accord mid-sized sedan, the CR-V sport-utility vehicle, the Civic compact car, the Jazz subcompact and the Brio eco-car.

The Freed mini multipurpose vehicle imported from Indonesia is also available in the Thai market.

"We hope to clear all back orders in the next three months," said Mr Pitak.

Honda's Ayutthaya plants were battered by the devastating floods last year.

The factories, with annual production capacity of 240,000 vehicles, were submerged by floodwaters, bringing production to a halt in early October.

Honda's Thai subsidiary cleaned, inspected, repaired and replaced the machinery and equipment damaged by the floods in about four months.

While the restoration work was in progress, the Thai government let Honda import Jazz and Accord models duty-free from Japan to offset lost production.

Mr Pitak said 6,000 cars were imported, two-thirds of them Jazz models.

"We've stopped importing the Jazz but will continue to bring in the Accord until the Thai plants have restarted their production," said Mr Pitak.

He declined to predict when Honda will use its full production capacity, saying local car demand is difficult to forecast this year since the first-car tax rebate is due to expire at year-end.

Honda has yet to reach full production capacity.

Before the floods, the Japanese automaker produced 170,000 to 180,000 cars a year here.

"If car demand booms this year, then next year's demand may shrink drastically," said Mr Pitak.

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