2011 Was A Difficult Year For Japanese Car Manufacturers

Monday, 31. October 2011

You have to have some sympathy for Honda after our hearts go out to those that died in the Tsunami then over the last few days those that have lost their lives in the Thai floods. But talk about bad choices of location, Honda shut down production for most of the summer following the tsunami and we now hear that following the severe floods on 4^th October in Thailand they have stopped production at their plant based just north of Bangkok. The closing of the water damaged plant, that can produce up to 240,000 cars each year, will have a further impact on Honda profits.

Toyota and Nissan have also suffered as a result of the Thai floods with J P Morgan suggesting that the tsunami and floods could lose the 3 biggest car makers Y35bn in profits this year.

The most affected company has been Honda who would normally move production elsewhere in the world, following a disaster at one of their plants, but they are already running all their plants at full tilt following the tsunami so the Thai floods have had a worse affect than expected.

Having said that the company is still running at a profit but for how much longer? By Graham Hill