Honda stops production at a UK factory for delivery delays

Honda stops production at a UK factory for delivery delays

Japanese carmaker Honda announced that it will stop production at its British factory on Tuesday and Wednesday to delay global deliveries of components. Honda also suspended production for several days in December as some large container ports in the United Kingdom, such as Felixstowe, struggled. The reasons were the creation of stocks in Britain before Brexit and Christmas. And also the pandemic of a new coronavirus, which has increased normal trade flows. At the same time, empty freight containers were stuck in the wrong places, which caused supply problems all over the world. At the Swindon plant in the south of England, Honda resumed production only on Monday after a break during the holidays. "We are currently monitoring the situation with the prospect of resuming production on Thursday, January 7," the Japanese carmaker said in a statement. The world's major carmakers have introduced a just-in-time system in production, in which components are delivered as needed and companies do not keep them in stock. This means that some parts arrive shortly before they are installed in vehicles. The Swindon plant is Honda's only European factory. And it is going to close this year as well. Already before the year, in 2019, it produced only about 110,000 Civic models. This was less than the plant's production capacity.