Life of Guangzhou - Honda China JV Plants Halt Output due to Flooding

Honda Motor Co has suspended production at two major car factories and an engine plant in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou due to flooding from heavy rains, the company said on Thursday.

One of the car plants, with an annual capacity of 240,000 vehicles, was shut late on Monday and will remain closed at least until next Monday, a national holiday, a Honda spokeswoman in Tokyo said. Japan's No.2 automaker is still evaluating damage to the factory.

The other, 120,000 vehicles-a-year factory, also run jointly with Guangzhou Automobile Group Co, was not damaged by the rains but operations were suspended on Thursday and will remain closed on Friday as supply was disrupted from the engine plant, she said.

The two factories build the Accord, Odyssey, Fit and City models.

The 360,000 units-a-year engine factory owned with Dongfeng Motor Corp (0489.HK: Quote, Profile, Research) has been closed since Tuesday and will also be shuttered at least through Monday.

That factory also supplies some engine parts to a Dongfeng Honda plant in Wuhan, central China, which assembles the CR-V and Civic models. Production there could be suspended after a few days if the factory fails to replenish the engine parts in time, Honda said.

Economic losses as a result of the storm and production suspension are unclear at this stage, a Honda executive in China said.

Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T: Quote, Profile, Research) and Nissan Motor Co (7201.T: Quote, Profile, Research), which also make cars in Guangzhou, were not affected by the rains, they said.

A powerful earthquake last month centred in Sichuan province, some 1,200 km (750 miles) to the northwest, had disrupted production at Toyota's small joint venture factory in Chengdu, leading to a production loss of 800 vehicles. A spokesman said operations had returned to normal this week. (Reporting by Fang Yan in Shanghai and Chang-Ran Kim in Tokyo)

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