Dongfeng Honda H1 sales up 41.5% to 128,000 vehicles

Shanghai, July 7 (Gasgoo.com) Dongfeng Honda Automobile Co Ltd, a 50-50 joint venture between Dongfeng Motor Group and Honda Motor, sold 128,000 vehicles in the first half of the year, up 41.5% from a year earlier, media reported yesterday.

Although the company's production halted in late May as a result of workers' strike at Honda's parts manufacturing plant in Foshan, Guangdong province, Dongfeng Honda returned to normal operation soon. In June alone, the CR-V vehicles produced by the venture sold a record 13,500 units.

Honda Motor said that its output in China fell 15.7% in May, the first year-on-year decline within 12 months, and that its car sales in China dropped for the first time within 15 months, after a series of strikes at its suppliers in China.

Dongfeng Honda's sales last year grew 28.4% to 210,601 vehicles and the venture aims to sell 240,000 vehicles this year. The company is getting close to using up the capacity of a plant it operates in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.

To expand its production capacity in China, Honda plans to build a new plant with Dongfeng Motor. The 100,000-unit new plant in Wuhan could begin production by the end of 2011. The Honda Civic car may be produced at the new plant.

Dongfeng Honda's second plant will lift Honda's overall China capacity to 710,000 units, with 300,000 at Dongfeng Honda, 360,000 at Guangzhou Honda, and 50,000 at Honda Auto (China), an export auto production venture.