A motorbike assembly line at Honda Vietnam company in Vinh Phuc (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – Honda Vietnam said the company plans toshift from manufacturing to importing vehicles due to manufacturinginterruptions and market stagnation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ina document recently submitted to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, HondaVietnam CEO Keisuke Tsuruzono said the company’s manufacturing output is expectedto drop 30 percent for cars in 2020 and 43 percent for motorbikes from April toJune. As a result, the company’s revenue would decrease significantly.
Themarket saw a year-on-year drop of 32 percent in car sales in the first threemonths this year. The motorbike market has been affected since early April. Thedocument also mentioned the social distancing order imposed between April 1-22as one of the reasons for the fall.
Accordingto Tsuruzono, the manufacturing stagnation was partly due to a shortage ofspare parts supplied by several nations which were under lockdown due to theCOVID-19 pandemic. In addition, the company had to suspend operation from April1 to 22 and sale agents suspended business under social distancing measures.
HondaVietnam proposed measures to continue removing difficulties for motorbike andcar manufacturers by extending deadlines for their tax and land leasingpayments.
Thecompany also made proposals on reducing value-added taxes and registration feesfor customers while reducing interest rates by 5-6 percent for spare partsmanufacturers./.
