The Japanese auto manufacturer, Honda Siel Cars India (HSCI) plans to resume its production operations by the month of March after facing severe supply disruption of components from its vendors due to the tsunami in Japan and the floods in Thailand. If all goes as planned now, Honda will have faced 6 months of production crunch in the current fiscal year. Currently the company has already started to roll out the City sedan from this month while will be resuming its normal operations for Brio and Jazz from March. Honda has rolled out 1000 models of the City this month.
“In this ongoing fiscal we have lost about six months of production due to disruption in supply of components following the tsunami in Japan and floods in Thailand. Now we have found alternate source from Japan and China,” Honda Siel Cars India Senior Vice-President (Marketing & Sales) Jsnaneswar Sen told
Honda currently has one manufacturing facility in India in Greater Noida which has an annual capacity of 1.2 lakh units while the company is deliberating on setting up another such facility in the future in Tapukara in Rajasthan. However, Mr. Sen added that the decision to start rolling out cars from its second plant will be taken only when the Greater Noida plant runs at full capacity. Honda had cut its overall production at the Greater Noida plant in May to more than 50% following the aftermath of the tsunami of Japan and huge floods in Thailand.
Honda is gearing up to restore its supply and reduce the waiting period of its vehicles. It also rejected any plans of introducing any new model in the Indian market this year. The Brio has got about 8000 pending bookings till date of which only 2000 units have been delivered. Mr. Sen is very positive of the production touching the 10,000 units per month by March-April. The production of the Brio will be ramped up by next month which will be followed by the Jazz. In these competitive times, Honda has lost a lot of market and needs to gear up aggressively to make up for it.
