Coronavirus Stops Chinese Honda Production
Deadly coronavirus started in the city of Wuhan, which is home to three major Honda Motor Company production plants.
The coronavirus outbreak started in the city of Wuhan, China, and has been nothing short of mindblowing. Over 40,000 have contracted the virus worldwide since its start in early January 2020. Over 1,000 have died due to its complications at the time of writing. Worst of all, it seems to have no signs of slowing down. It has lead to a quarantine of the entire city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the virus outbreak. Wuhan is also where several major automotive production plants are located, including a handful of those belonging to Honda.
According to Bloomberg, this outbreak has completely stopped production for Honda and other auto manufacturers. This cease in production will undoubtedly affect the entirety of the Chinese automotive market. This could be a drastic blow, as the Chinese automotive market generates nearly twice the amount of sales in a calendar than that of the US automotive market.
China is home to the world’s largest automotive market. According to The Wall Street Journal, the Wuhan assembly plants build Civics and CR-Vs, as well as others. With the quarantine of the city, which is home to over 11 million people, sales have come to a complete stop. Various videos and pictures show the city empty on every street when it usually has as much hustle and bustle as Times Square. Bloomberg reports that this stop will put a major dent in not only the sales for the period of the quarantine and outbreak but the entirety of the Chinese auto market sales for this year.
LMC Automotive speculates that if the virus continues at its current pace, China could see shrinkage of 10% in its automotive sales market. However, if the virus slows somewhat soon, it still is said to affect the 2020 market year by 5%. Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of China Passenger Car Association, car sales in China says they will see a slump between 25 and 30% during January and February. While these numbers may not seem all that extreme given the circumstance, CNBC reports that last year over 28 million cars were sold in China. So, even 5% racks up to over 1.4 million fewer car sales.
According to Bloomberg, Honda plans to restore operations at the Wuhan plant by February 14th and resume output by February 17th. Honda is not the only manufacturer to close due to the coronavirus outbreak. Toyota also has production plants in the city of Wuhan. Their plants are also currently out of production due to the rapidly spreading infection. However, they too plan to resume production mid-February. Additionally, Hyundai had to close a South Korea plant due to the lack of materials available from China.
The coronavirus has been bad news all around. Hopefully, it isn’t too detrimental to Honda in the long run. We especially hope for a recovery from the virus to the citizens of China, who have been working to build new hospitals and actively fighting the virus.
Photos: Honda
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