Volkswagen CEO Urges Germany to Adopt China's Industrial Discipline Amid Major Restructuring 
Xiaomi Shares Drop After SU7 Launch as Margin Concerns Weigh on Investors 
Goldman Sachs Delays Bank of England Rate Cut Forecast Amid Middle East Inflation Risks 
SLMG Beverages Eyes Price Hikes Amid Rising Packaging Costs and India's Booming Soft Drink Market 
Amazon's "Transformer" Phone: Can It Succeed Where Fire Phone Failed? 
Sonova Shares Slip as Hearing Aid Giant Lowers Growth Outlook and Plans Sennheiser Exit 
Finnair Orders 18 Embraer E195-E2 Jets in Landmark Fleet Overhaul 
Elliott Investment Management Takes Multibillion-Dollar Stake in Synopsys 
Palantir's Maven AI Earns Pentagon "Program of Record" Status, Reshaping Military AI Strategy 
Delivery Hero Sells Taiwan Foodpanda to Grab for $600 Million in Debt-Reduction Push 
Jeff Bezos Eyes $100 Billion Fund to Transform Manufacturing With AI 
Goldman Sachs Raises ECB Rate Hike Forecast Amid Persistent Energy-Driven Inflation 
NVIDIA's Feynman AI Chip May Face Redesign Amid TSMC Capacity Crunch 
Tesla Eyes $2.9 Billion in Chinese Solar Equipment to Power 100 GW U.S. Manufacturing Push 
FEMSA Cuts Jobs at Spin Fintech Unit, Refocuses Strategy on Oxxo Stores 
Berkshire Hathaway and Tokio Marine Form Major Strategic Insurance Partnership 
U.S. Appeals Court Strikes Down FTC Order Against TurboTax "Free" Advertising 
Honda Motor Co. announced early this week that it would be halting its production at its major plants in the U.S. and Canada. The company stated that the work suspension would last only a week.
Causes of the work disruptions
As per Reuters, the spokesperson for Honda revealed that the company would temporarily stop all production activities in the entire week starting March 22. The Japanese automaker cited chip shortage due to the unavoidable effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It was added that aside from this, the company was also affected by the severe weather and congestion at different ports. For these reasons, Honda was forced to suspend all the production works in some of its factories across North America.
The car manufacturer did not indicate the number of vehicle units impacted. However, it shared that the company’s production and purchasing teams are working to minimize the effect of the situation. The company added that the length of production adjustments could change, but the workers may still continue to work in Honda’s factories.
The list of affected plants
At any rate, Bloomberg reported that some of the Honda plants that will be closed for a week include the one in Marysville, Ohio, Indiana, Alabama, and Ontario, Canada. It is hoped that work suspension will only be for a week.
In 2020, Honda was able to churn out 1.45 million vehicle units in North America. Although this is a lot, the production rate was down by 20% compared to 2019’s record. The automaker has a total of 12 plants in the U.S. and one in Canada.
Vice president of vehicle forecasting company, AutoForecast Solutions, Sam Fiorani, stated that normally, Honda makes around 30,000 units per week. Thus, it is predicted that the company will lose this much sales for this number of vehicles.
Meanwhile, the chip shortage is still a big problem among automakers because, despite the efforts to boost the production of the much-needed chips to meet the demands worldwide, semiconductor companies are still not able to produce as much. In fact, Toyota Motor Corp is also temporarily halting its own production next week due to the same issues as with Honda.
