Honda Motor will temporarily shut production at several factories in Japan and China in late December and early January, as disruptions caused by a shortage of semiconductors continue to ripple through the global automotive industry.
The Japanese carmaker said operations at some domestic plants will be suspended on 5 and 6 January, without identifying the specific facilities affected.
In China, all three plants run by its joint venture, Guangqi Honda Automobile, will be taken offline for five days from 29 December to 2 January, reported the Japan Times.
Honda had earlier indicated that production was expected to normalise from late November. The latest stoppages suggest that supply chain bottlenecks remain unresolved, despite earlier efforts to stabilise output. When Japanese production resumes on 7 January, output will be scaled back for a further three days from originally planned levels.
The latest disruption follows a temporary halt at Honda plants in Mexico in October and November, also linked to semiconductor shortages.
Those shortages were triggered by a geopolitical dispute involving the Netherlands and China over oversight of a chipmaker, which in turn disrupted supplies to North America, forcing slowdowns in the United States and Canada.
The broader shortage has been exacerbated after Chinese authorities blocked Nexperia, a semiconductor manufacturer owned by China-based Wingtech Technology, from exporting chips produced at its local facilities. Nexperia supplies components used in vehicle control systems, including basic functions such as operating power windows and windscreen wipers.
Honda has already cut its global sales forecast to 3.34 million vehicles from an earlier estimate of 3.62 million, reported Bloomberg.
In its financial outlook for the year ending March 2026, released in November, the company said reduced output linked to chip shortages would cut operating profit by about ¥150bn (£770m), warning that the impact could be larger. Honda shares fell 1.5 per cent in Tokyo following reports of the latest shutdowns.
