Justin Tomlinson MP today responded to the news that serious flooding in Thailand has resulted in disruption to the component part supply chain for Honda’s Swindon plant.
The devastating flooding has affected a large area of central and northern Thailand meaning that a number of Honda suppliers in the area have been forced to stop parts production.
Speaking on ITV’s regional news Justin Tomlinson MP expressed sympathy for all those affected by the terrible flooding in Thailand and reassured that Honda is doing all it can to deal with the situation and keep the Swindon plant on track.
Staff at the plant have been placed onto a three day week for at least this week and possibly next, but will not see any loss of wages. Instead, the hours will be banked and claimed back later, phased over a period of time. The Swindon plant suffered similar disruption following the Japanese earthquake earlier in the year and had returned to full operating levels in September.
The disruption will affect the production of the new Civic, with the start of mass production delayed from mid-November by about a month. This will see the first cars hitting the market in February 2012 rather than the planned January. Due to existing stock, there is no immediate impact on either the Jazz or the CR-V and Honda hope to catch back up on production of the Civic as soon as possible.
Justin Tomlinson MP said “It is terrible to see such devastating flooding in Thailand and our thoughts must be with those affected.
“Honda is doing all it can to deal with the component supply shortage to keep production at Swindon on track and to ensure that the staff are not unduly affected. Honda have shown, following the two day week we saw introduced after the Japanese earthquake, that it is able to deal with such situations in an effective and sensitive manner – a real credit to their strong employee relationship.”