Honda announces plans for further 2 month shutdown

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It could have been a lot worse. Honda has announced that it is to shutdown it’s Swindon factory for two further months in April and May due to the slowing down of demand for its cars. The carmaker had already announced in November the plant would be shut during February and March. The BBC reports that Japan’s second largest car maker (Toyota bing the biggest) had no plans for redundancies and that it intended to “safeguard employment” for those workers who “wanted to stay”.
The halt in production amounts to 35 working days.
Honda employs 4,200 people in the UK and exports the Civic to 60 countries worldwide. Honda have already announced production cuts and job losses at home in Japan.

EU business ministers are meeting in Brussels on Friday to discuss ways to help carmakers through the economic downturn but as to whether anything will come from their “discussions” (apart from the usual hot air) remains to be seen.

We’ll keep you posted.