Honda halts production at most US, Canadian auto plants

Honda factories across the U.S. and Canada will halt production due to a supply-chain issue, the company said Tuesday.

In a statement to The Hill, a company spokesperson confirmed that most plants will stop production, while some will operate at reduced levels. Workers “will continue to have the opportunity to work at the impacted plants” and will not be laid off, the spokesperson said.

“We continue to manage a number of supply chain issues related to the impact from COVID-19, congestion at various ports, the microchip shortage and severe winter weather over the past several weeks. Our purchasing and production teams are working to limit the impact of this situation and are adjusting production as necessary in order to carefully manage the available supply of parts and meet the needs of our customers,” they said.

“In some way, all of our auto plants in the U.S. and Canada will be impacted, with most of the plants temporarily suspending production during the week of March 22,” Honda’s spokesperson added.

The shutdown was blamed on a global microchip shortage, “congestion at various ports” and COVID-19-related delays.

The Hill has reached out to the automaker for further comment.

In June, some of the company’s U.S. plants halted production due to a cyberattack. That attack also took the company’s customer service center offline temporarily.

Honda’s spokesperson added Tuesday that “the timing and length of production adjustments could change” while that teams were working diligently to address the supply-chain issue.

Updated at 12:30 p.m.