Honda Saitama and Suzuka plants: production halt dates and affected models

© A. Krivonosov

Until August 19 does not mean two weeks of lost production. Honda has clarified its schedule after the Kumamoto earthquake: the Saitama plant is skipping six working days, Suzuka five — and August 8–16 was already off the calendar there due to the summer holiday, quake or no quake. The real extension of the shutdown falls on August 17–19 — three more working days for each plant.

Honda halted Saitama on August 5–7, and Suzuka on August 6–7. In an August 5 financial presentation, the company attributed the adjustment to a parts shortage after some suppliers’ facilities were damaged by the July 28 earthquake. A decision on further resumption of output will depend on the state of the supply chain.

For the Australian market, the pause shows up in the model lineup. Drive ties it to the Civic, Prelude, HR-V and ZR-V. Honda’s own data narrows down the production geography: the Yorii plant, part of Saitama, builds the Civic, ZR-V and Prelude, while the Japanese-market Vezel, sold elsewhere as the HR-V, is among Suzuka’s core models. In other words, the risk is spread across both halted sites, not just one factory.

The earthquake itself was powerful. Japan’s Meteorological Agency recorded the July 28 event in Kumamoto at magnitude 7.1, with a depth of about 10 km and a maximum intensity of 7 on the Japanese scale.

Honda has not yet said whether the five- and six-day production loss will delay specific orders. The next checkpoint is August 20: if the plants fail to return to normal operations after the three extra idle days, the parts shortage’s impact will extend beyond the schedule already published.