Bangkok Post - After struggling for more than two months, Honda's Thailand plant will be back to normal by September, a few months behind its rivals.
Production of the Honda Brio, Thailand's second eco-car after the Nissan March, will start next month and will gradually increase to full capacity by September.
Delivery of Brio cars to customers will also begin next month after Honda took about 5,000 orders, mostly from the Bangkok International Motor Show in March and April.
Honda Automobile Thailand ceased Brio production and stopped taking orders, and also cut the production of other car models, because of the shortage of parts imported from Japan following the devastating earthquake there.
The groundbreaking car was scheduled to hit showrooms in March but the disruption of parts supplies to Thailand stalled production.
Bangkok-based Asian Honda Motor said Honda was currently making adjustments to its production volume in the Asia-Oceania region based on the parts supply situation from Japan. Since the parts supply is now expected to increase gradually, production volumes will be increased starting in July. Production at almost all automotive plants in the region is expected to be normalised in August and September.
Honda Automobile Thailand also said it would ramp up auto production at its facility in Ayutthaya to 80% in July and to resume normal production from September onward.
The move follows recent updates that the supply of auto parts from Japan was gradually improving in the aftermath of the March earthquake.
Atsushi Fujimoto, president of Honda Automobile Thailand, said the production for Brio would resume this September to meet customers' orders that were received when the fuel-efficient eco-car made its world premiere debut in Thailand.
Honda continues to take customers' bookings for the Jazz, City, Civic, Accord, CR-V and Indonesian-built Freed at all its showrooms nationwide.
