Honda to normalise Indian car output by October

Honda Siel Cars India, whose production was badly hit by the March earthquake-tsunami disaster in Japan, said on Friday it is likely to hike production by August and resume normal output by the festive season in October as component supply from its parent in Japan slowly normalises.

Honda Siel Cars India (HSCI) had cut production by 50 per cent since the beginning of this month. It had said then that the cut would last till about July.

"The parts supply is now expected to increase gradually and production volume will be increased starting August 2011 with the expectation that HSCI will begin operating on normal production from the festival season," HSCI said in a statement.

"Honda Motor is exerting a company-wide effort to normalise our production as soon as possible," it said, adding the Japanese parent is making adjustments to its production volume in the Asia Oceania region based on the parts supply situation from Japan.

When the company trimmed its output, it had moved to single shift operations. Prior to the production cut, the HSCI unit at Greater Noida was rolling out about 5,000 units every month. The company imports various components from Japan such as engine parts and electronics.

The company has also set up its second facility at Tapukara, in Rajasthan. The plant, which has a capacity to produce 60,000 units annually, has not started manufacturing of vehicles yet.

The company also said its compact car Honda Brio will be launched as scheduled during the festival season this year.