Honda will meet growing US demand for small cars while maintaining North American jobs by moving production of two bigger models from Canada to Alabama, chief executive Takeo Fukui said yesterday.
Honda Motor Co’s Pilot sport utility vehicle and Ridgeline pickup, now rolling off its plant in Ontario, Canada, will be produced in Alabama, allowing the production of the Civic sedan to be raised in Canada, he said.
“Gas prices continue to rise and the demand for cars with good mileage is growing,” Fukui told reporters at a Tokyo hotel. “Efforts are under way to increase the local production of the Civic.”
Even the usually booming Japanese automakers are sensing the pinch from a US economic slowdown and soaring material costs, including steel. But the Japanese are holding up better than their US rivals because of their reputation for fuel-efficient offerings.
General Motors’ top managers are working on additional restructuring measures to deal with a declining US auto market and an accelerated shift from trucks to more fuel efficient vehicles, a person familiar with the plan said on Wednesday.
Such a move would come on top of thousands of job cuts at GM over the past three years, mainly through buyout and early retirement offers.
Ford said earlier this week that it is planning layoffs of salaried employees by August as part of a restructuring in the face of slumping sales and record-high gas prices.
Honda’s production changes won’t create — or cut — any jobs in North America. But Fukui noted it would maintain sales momentum.
“And the point is we won’t have to reduce employment,” he said.
Honda will create US jobs when its plant to build Civics opens in Indiana later this year. That plant is expected to add about 2,000 jobs.
Fukui said Honda’s Fit subcompact is also emerging as a hit in the US.
Still, overall US auto sales are expected to drop to around 15 million vehicles this year — down from 17 million as recently as 2005.
For last month, General Motors, Ford and Chrysler all saw double-digit US sales declines compared to a year earlier. But Honda, along with Nissan Motor Co and Toyota Motor Corp, reported year-on-year gains.
Relatively new auto plants are flexible in production, allowing models to be switched to respond to shifts in demand. At some plants, the same assembly line can produce different models, one after the other.
SEPARATE: The MAC rebutted Beijing’s claim that Taiwan is China’s province, asserting that UN Resolution 2758 neither mentions Taiwan nor grants the PRC authority over it The “status quo” of democratic Taiwan and autocratic China not belonging to each other has long been recognized by the international community, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday in its rebuttal of Beijing’s claim that Taiwan can only be represented in the UN as “Taiwan, Province of China.” Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) yesterday at a news conference of the third session at the 14th National People’s Congress said that Taiwan can only be referred to as “Taiwan, Province of China” at the UN. Taiwan is an inseparable part of Chinese territory, which is not only history but
CROSSED A LINE: While entertainers working in China have made pro-China statements before, this time it seriously affected the nation’s security and interests, a source said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) late on Saturday night condemned the comments of Taiwanese entertainers who reposted Chinese statements denigrating Taiwan’s sovereignty. The nation’s cross-strait affairs authority issued the statement after several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑), Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜) and Michelle Chen (陳妍希), on Friday and Saturday shared on their respective Sina Weibo (微博) accounts a post by state broadcaster China Central Television. The post showed an image of a map of Taiwan along with the five stars of the Chinese flag, and the message: “Taiwan is never a country. It never was and never will be.” The post followed remarks
INVESTMENT WATCH: The US activity would not affect the firm’s investment in Taiwan, where 11 production lines would likely be completed this year, C.C. Wei said Investments by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) in the US should not be a cause for concern, but rather seen as the moment that the company and Taiwan stepped into the global spotlight, President William Lai (賴清德) told a news conference at the Presidential Office in Taipei yesterday alongside TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家). Wei and US President Donald Trump in Washington on Monday announced plans to invest US$100 billion in the US to build three advanced foundries, two packaging plants, and a research and development center, after Trump threatened to slap tariffs on chips made
Proposed amendments would forbid the use of all personal electronic devices during school hours in high schools and below, starting from the next school year in August, the Ministry of Education said on Monday. The Regulations on the Use of Mobile Devices at Educational Facilities up to High Schools (高級中等以下學校校園行動載具使用原則) state that mobile devices — defined as mobile phones, laptops, tablets, smartwatches or other wearables — should be turned off at school. The changes would stipulate that use of such devices during class is forbidden, and the devices should be handed to a teacher or the school for safekeeping. The amendments also say
RSS