Japanese car production at a standstill

JAPANESE automobile joint ventures in China, including Dongfeng Honda and Dongfeng Nissan, kept their production facilities on hold yesterday.

Yang Song, deputy sales director with Guangdong-based Dongfeng Nissan, and Li Peng, deputy sales director of Hubei-based Dongfeng Honda, said the situation was being monitored to see whether to resume production soon.

Nissan's plants in Zhengzhou, in Henan Province, and Guangzhou, which are also operated in partnership with Dongfeng Motor Corp, remained shut yesterday.

Dongfeng Nissan is currently the largest Japanese brand car producer in China.

Li said Dongfeng Honda closed 104 outlets across the country amid Chinese fury over the Diaoyu Islands situation. The company had also received 2,120 cancellations of car orders.

He said the company's inventory had soared to 13,838 units, close to the level that signals a need to curb production.

"Workers may be given long vacations from now to October 7, the end of China's National Day holiday," Li said.

The Dongfeng Nissan plant in Guangdong has 15,000 workers on its payroll, and Dongfeng Honda in Hubei has 7,000.

Dongfeng said that gas stations in 28 cities had been refusing to refuel Japanese vehicles.

The company said that if anti-Japan sentiment provoked by Japan's "purchase" of the Diaoyu Islands continued to develop, the risk to the operation of the joint ventures with the Japanese automakers would be aggravated, which would also harm the interests of its affiliated suppliers and sales agencies.

The island row has also cast a shadow over the electronics sector, bilateral trade and China's outbound tourism to Japan.

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