Honda Thailand scraps over 1,000 flood-damaged vehicles

Honda Thailand scraps over 1,000 flood-damaged vehicles

BANGKOK: Honda began destroying 1,055 cars in Thailand to reassure customers that no vehicles damaged in the country’s recent flood crisis will ever be sold.

 

The scrapping process at Honda’s plant in the central province of Ayutthaya is expected to take one month, the company said in a statement.

The plant is located in the Rojana Industrial Park, where heavy flooding in early October brought production to a halt and aerial pictures showed hundreds of new cars submerged in muddy water.
“While we were able to relocate many new cars that were awaiting shipment to a safe area, 1,055 vehicles that remained in the plant were finally damaged by the flood,” said Pitak Pruittisarikorn, executive vice president of Honda Automobile Thailand.
Most of the cars to be scrapped are mid-sized City sedans and Brio and Jazz hatchbacks. Production has yet to resume at the factory.
Thailand said earlier this month that over 700 people died in the floods, which at their height affected 65 of the 77 provinces in the low-lying nation and forced the closure of seven major industrial parks, disrupting global supply chains.

-AFP

Car production bases to remain in Thailand despite floods

 

(picture source AFP)

BANGKOK: Despite the floods, car makers will not shift their production bases from Thailand but will only suspend production due to the shortage of auto parts, Thai News Agency (TNA) reported.


Piangjai Kaewsuwan, president of the Thai Automotive Industry Association, said on Thursday although industrial estates in Ayutthaya province were flooded and automobile and auto parts manufacturers affected, the floods should not prompt car-making companies to move their production bases from Thailand because it was a temporary natural disaster.

Piangjai, however, said she expected the supply of auto parts to drop by 10-20 percent.

She added that the Thai automotive industry should take at least three months to recover and that the actual automobile production should reach at least 1.5 million units this year instead of the annual production target of 1.8 million vehicles.

Toyota, Ford, Nissan and Isuzu companies have so far suspended their production for two days to assess the situation, saying they may source auto parts from China and India instead.

Meanwhile, Anuparp Tadpitakkul, state affairs director of Ford Operations (Thailand) Co, said the company suspended its production for two days to examine its stocks of parts as seven plants were affected.

However, he said he did not think the floods will have an impact on the long-term investment of the company in Thailand.

Some 10 Malaysian companies have been found affected by the severe flooding.

International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said most of them were involved in the automotive and electrical and electronic sectors.

"Those who are affected operate in the flooded Ban Wa, Rojana and Navanakorn industrial parks," he told reporters after the ministry's monthly assembly in Kuala Lumpur today.

The Thai News Agency reported Deputy Prime Minister Kittirat Na-Ranong as saying that the ongoing flood crisis could reduce the country's GDP growth by at least 0.6-0.9 per cent due to expanding damage to its farm and industrial sectors.

 -Bernama(Photo by AFP)