Honda Motor’s, which among the auto companies troubled by component shortages because of the Japanese tragedy, recently told their dealers in the US that they expect production to return to normal by July-August. This is an indication that supply constraints caused by shut down of facilities in Japan, when a devastating earthquake and tsunami struck it on March 11, could soon resume operations.
The executive VP for the American division of Honda Motors, John Mendel, told dealers that they can expect the availability of vehicles to increase by 11% in July compared for month of June. They can also expect production to increase by August. Dealers will reportedly witness a boost in volumes as the allocations for the July production will be announced in the following week.
Mendel also mentioned that as they stated earlier they had hit their lowest point, but are now moving forwards because of rising production capacity. The announcement will come as a positive development for the dealers of the company, who had earlier watched their rival company, Toyota announce that they would be resuming normal productions sooner than they expected.
Mendel had also said that his company’s pace of sales till May 19 were to quote verbatim ‘relatively soft’, saying that the concerns put out by their dealers regarding shortages of inventory were partly due to a slow start. Mendel also encouraged his dealers to be optimistic, noting that the overall inventory was down in comparision to May 2010, the supplies of some of their models were better compared than last year.
Considering what the company has in plans, in addition their incentives for those vehicles which have sufficient availability, Mendel, said that their dealers have to give their best to ensure sales. They are all aware that the auto market is improving considerably and they want to grow with the market as well.