gm, honda to increase u.s. manufacturing - automotive news
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54 • FEBRUARY 6, 2012
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Honda predicts N.A.sales to soar in quarterHans [email protected]
TOKYO — Honda Motor Co. pre-dicts it will have a blockbuster Janu-ary-March quarter in North Ameri-ca as it seeks to make up for weaksales in previous months.
Honda’s latest sales forecastshows it now expects to sell 1.32 mil-lion vehicles in North America in thefiscal year ending March 31, downfrom the 1.375 million it had predict-ed as recently as August. The reasonfor the downgrade: Flooding inThailand last fall disrupted electron-ics parts shipments and forced U.S.plants to operate at half capacity.
Honda’s forecast means it is ex-pecting a huge January-Marchbounce-back. Subtracting nine-month results from the fiscal-yearforecast shows Honda anticipatesNorth American sales of 460,000 inthe period — up 29 percent from356,000 a year earlier. The year-ear-lier quarter came before the March11 earthquake slammed NorthAmerica sales.
Honda already had expected fis-cal-year sales to drop because ofthe earthquake. The new lower tar-get represents a 9 percent sales
slide in Honda’s most importantmarket, from 1.458 million units inthe previous fiscal year.
The company’s North Americanplants were operating at about halftheir normal output from early No-vember to early December to con-serve parts that were in short sup-ply from Thailand.
Honda was the automaker worsthit by Japan’s spring earthquake.Operations were just returning tonormal when floods inundated itsassembly plant and suppliers inThailand.
Honda also warned that operat-ing profit would plunge 65 percentto ¥200.0 billion ($2.58 billion) inthe current fiscal year endingMarch 31. Net income is seenfalling 60 percent to $2.78 billion.
The Thai floods are expected tolop $1.42 billion off the automaker’soperating profit. The yen’s climbagainst the dollar and other curren-cies is forecast to erase another$1.65 billion, Honda said.
Global sales are forecast to slide10 percent to 3.15 million vehicles,from 3.512 million last year. Hondasaid it lost 260,000 units of outputbecause of the Thai floods.c
GM, Honda to increaseU.S. manufacturingDanielle [email protected]
General Motors and Honda Mo-tor Co.’s North American opera-tions have unveiled plans to ex-pand U.S. manufacturing, joininga steady stream of automakerswith similar plans.
In the past four months or so,GM, Honda, BMW AG, Nissan Mo-tor Co., Mazda Motor Corp., FordMotor Co., Chrysler Group, ToyotaMotor Corp. and Volkswagen AGhave said they will add or expandplants or boost production byadding factory shifts in the UnitedStates.
GM said it will start constructionthis week on a $200 million stamp-ing plant in Arlington, Texas, cre-ating about 180 jobs.
The plant will be part of thecompany’s Arlington manufactur-ing complex and is scheduled tostart production in 2013. It willproduce large stamped compo-nents for the next generation ofGM’s large SUVs: ChevroletTahoes and Suburbans, GMCYukons and Cadillac Escalades.
Arlington receives stamped com-ponents from several GM plants.The new plant will save GM about$40 million a year in logistics costs,the company said in a statement.
Last May, GM said it would invest$331 million in the Texas plant forexpansion, tooling and equipment.
Joe Ashton, vice president of the
UAW representing the GM depart-ment, said in a statement that thenews was further evidence that theU.S. auto industry is recovering.
“An important goal for the UAWis to increase the number of man-ufacturing jobs in the UnitedStates, and we are pleased thatGeneral Motors has decided tomake this investment in Arling-ton,” he said in the statement.
GM says it has committed morethan $6.9 billion of investments toimprove or expand operation in 12states since June 2009, creating orretaining more than 17,600 jobs.
Separately, Honda said it will in-vest $98 million at its Anna, Ohio,engine plant to build pulley com-ponents for the company’s con-tinuously variable transmissions.
The CVTs are part of Honda’snext-generation powertrain tech-nologies aimed at boosting perfor-mance and fuel efficiency.
Production of the pulley compo-nents in Anna is to begin in 2013.
“The production of this new CVTtechnology puts the Buckeye State
right in the middle of Honda’sglobal strategy,” Hide Iwata, CEOof Honda of America Manufactur-ing, said in a statement.
The investment in the Annaplant follows a $120 million in-vestment announced last year forHonda’s plant in Russells Point,Ohio, northwest of Columbus,where the company will beginproducing the CVT this summer.
The modernization and expan-sion of the Russells Point trans-mission plant and the new pulleycomponent production at Annawill create a combined 150 newjobs, Honda said.
Since November 2010, Hondahas announced more than $500million in investments for ad-vanced technologies and systemsat its four Ohio plants.
In January, Honda’s Acura luxu-ry brand said the all-new AcuraNSX — which debuted last monthat the Detroit auto show — will bedeveloped in Ohio and built at anew manufacturing operation incentral Ohio.c
The Accord toppedHonda’s NorthAmerican sales in2011 as overall salesfell. The companyexpects a strongsales rebound in thecurrent quarter.
Honda continuouslyvariabletransmissions aretested during trialproduction inRussells Point,Ohio. Regularproduction willbegin this summer.
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