Guangzhou Honda loses 4 bln yuan due to floods

Shanghai, July 2 (Gasgoo.com) The persistent rainstorms in southern China last month severely damaged the first plant of Guangzhou Honda and brought heavy losses of about 4 billion yuan ($583 million) to the joint venture, said Auto Observer today. The production of all Guangzhou Honda returned to normal on June 20, when it brought back on line the last factory suspended for 19 days due to flooding in the region.

The joint venture, between China's Guangzhou Auto and Japanese Honda Motor Co, had suspended production on and off at its car assembly plants and an engine factory since as far back as June 2 after heavy rains flooded two of the facilities in Guangzhou. The carmaker has restarted production at the factories at various points starting from June 11 to June 17. An engine plant and an assembly plant went back to normal operations on June 20.

Guangzhou Honda's output, usually worth at least 200 million yuan a day, was seriously affected by the shutdowns in the 19 days and the losses due to the floods were estimated at 4 billion yuan. However, the company said that it would try to make up for the output shortfall and losses over the next two months, for example by operating on holidays.

The Accord production in the second plant was not so heavily affected by the floods while they damaged the first facility which makes City, Fit, Odyssey. The three models' output sharply declined in June.