Honda suspends Thai operations due to Red Shirt protests

Honda suspends Thai operations due to Red Shirt protestsHonda has suspended operations for a day at two of their factories in Thailand, due to the bloody turmoil created by the Red Shirt protests. One of them is a car manufacturing plant in Ayutthaya while the other is a motorcycle plant in a Bangkok suburb. The company also closed its main office in the capital as the military cracked down on the Reds.

“We’ll decide whether to operate our business on a day-by-day basis, watching the changing situation there,” a Honda spokeswoman told AFP. The Ayutthaya plant churns out around 240,000 vehicles a year, mostly Accord and Civic sedans meant for the domestic market.

After last week’s wave of arson attacks by angry Red Shirts, which consumed buildings such as the Central World shopping landmark and the iconic Siam Theatre, the City of Angels is being cleaned up now, and normal life is starting to resume, along with the traffic jams.

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Jacob Alexander

Jacob Mathew Alexander has been a motoring nut for as far as he can remember and has recently turned his passion into writing. After spending some time in the same industry in the UK, Jacob's work is from a slightly different perspective.

 

Comments

  • odi862 on May 24, 2010 at 3:58 pm

    Things are calming down there now…….

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  • theanswer on May 24, 2010 at 4:12 pm

    this is what some of irresponsible ppl want to do at our peaceful country..protest..protest..
    They cant see the consequences.

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  • its for thai ” domestic” market right?… not affected in m’sia…… no comment on the REDS!!! but dont slow delivery in msia… if not, the othe car manufacturers will cut in the sales…. but hard to say… maybe other brands might be affected….soon… hopefully not la. but if so, P1 n P2 will be very happy to take EXTRA orders….

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  • thailand = crap

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    • Thomas Heng on May 24, 2010 at 4:59 pm

      do you been there. It still better than malaysia

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      • Seriously! on May 24, 2010 at 5:21 pm

        you are not serious right! in time like this, i would rather be in Malaysia.

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      • Salamander on May 25, 2010 at 5:37 pm

        In what way is Thailand better than Malaysia? Comment without justification is a stupid comment.

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        • tokmoh on May 25, 2010 at 9:55 pm

          He likes the ladyboys there.

          Mak nyah sini… tak de class la…

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    • kangaroo on May 24, 2010 at 5:31 pm

      malaysia = crab

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    • Motorist on May 24, 2010 at 7:36 pm

      You must be one of the typical katak bawah tempurung M’sian whose perception of Thailand = prostitutes.

      What a loser.

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    • Squawk on May 24, 2010 at 8:39 pm

      Only Bangkok and a few areas are affected by the protests. And not everything needs to go through Bangkok. It’s like saying when there’s a riot in KL, Butterworth is in trouble.

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  • halim mah on May 24, 2010 at 5:32 pm

    came back mnufacturer in malaysia… why choose thailand…

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    • The Loner on May 24, 2010 at 6:02 pm

      We already have Honda factory in Melaka.

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    • Motorist on May 24, 2010 at 7:46 pm

      quote .. why choose Thailand quote

      Why dont you ask the father of Thai Automotive Industry, Mahathir Mohd.

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  • Ben X5 on May 24, 2010 at 6:31 pm

    This protest is in deed a problem … but wat to do.. when u elect a party to win and control.. the other party (yellow) start to protest..

    The red shirt are the true ppl of thailand.. The current prime minister is a *h*t head.. Mr.A**..

    Honda will resume soon :D.. thailand also make BMW 7 series :D.. tat is what i heard from my friend who bought one there..

    RED !!

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    • Motorist on May 24, 2010 at 7:44 pm

      The politics in Thailand is complex, with the military being the third force behind the scene.

      Thaksin isnt a goody two shoes, his business empire has indeed profited from his position of being PM. He is like Mahathir in that he still made sure the common man get some of the benefits/kick backs, while he took most of it.

      Then again the current PM isnt as powerless as you think he is. There are very powerful men backing him behind the scene.

      Both sides (yellow & red) has their points of view & neither is completely right nor wrong.

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    • Whatever on May 25, 2010 at 12:23 pm

      Are you implying that the previous prime minister (Thaksin) is godly good? Maybe, in term of managing the country like doing business. But I don’t think killing people in Southern Thailand (quoting Masjid Kerisek’s incident and Takbai incident before the rise of insurgent and current disharmony there) would count as a good deed.

      I assume that you would counter me by saying Abhisit killed Red Shirts recently, but at least he tried to negotiate first. And who can manage a country that is in deep s**t when he took over?

      Redshirts are mostly people from Nothern Thailand, who got goodies under Thaksin’s rule. With goodies cut off, they protest. True people of Thailand?

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    • tokmoh on May 25, 2010 at 10:00 pm

      Pekan makes S-class yo. IIANM, the only one is Asia to local assemble the S500 V8 engine

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  • White Jack on May 24, 2010 at 7:20 pm

    Toyota factory got close ah ?

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  • Good good.. come here la!

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  • think on May 24, 2010 at 9:48 pm

    this is the time for malaysian ministers open up their brains and think..they can suggest a deal with honda to assemble their cars here..we know that honda is a very strong brand internationally….honda cars which comes from thailand is also have a lower quality..i have seen this in many of current honda cars..think..

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    • What are you talking about? We do have a Honda plant in Alor Gajah that produces City, Civic, Accord and CR-V; while Jazz and Stream are imported from Thailand.

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      • tokmoh on May 25, 2010 at 10:02 pm

        lol, some people just don’t know.

        Anyway, Melaka-made Honda have quality problems too.

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      • landak on May 27, 2010 at 9:52 am

        Honda plant in Alor Gajah is for local M’sia market ONLY.
        Honda plant in Thailand is for ASEAN countries and some part of APAC(Australia,NZ…..)

        See the difference now ?

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  • odi862 on May 24, 2010 at 10:18 pm

    Almost all of the vital parts for Honda Malaysia came from Thailand. They just assemble the parts at Melaka. If production disrupted in Thailand, it may affect the assembly line in Malaysia unless they can source it from elsewhere.

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  • MyCarMyLife on May 25, 2010 at 8:50 am

    Indeed , true , when the production personnel are reds and the top management wears yellow .Different folks different strokes. Welcome to Thailand .

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  • Aaron on May 25, 2010 at 9:43 am

    Hope they will transfer the part making to malaysia. so malaysia economy will start to grow. unlike now always in sh1ty situation.

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  • monash.u on May 25, 2010 at 12:27 pm

    malaysia can never take a piece of the pie from thailand.

    ask ppl frm MIDA if you wan to knw why. very sinister answer is tat Malaysia only welcomes green technology. others like automotive, you better go thailand. we can’t give you kickbacks.

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    • Squawk on May 25, 2010 at 1:38 pm

      I heard a different story. Some foreign company wanted to use us as a supply, r&d & production base because we have substantial agricultural waste/byproducts which they have the capability to turn into something of use. The response they got from our gov… let’s just say the co shook their heads in disappointment and went to another country.

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      • Motorist on May 25, 2010 at 6:36 pm

        Almost all anecdotal stories I hear is exactly the same.

        Foreign companies all bright eye bushy tail until they meet the civil servants & political hanger on’s. Then the true colours are shown. Everyone from the clerk to the DG demands some form of under table or will tell you that they happen to know a company which the foreign company MUST joint venture with. The local directors just so happen to be related to the civil servant or political hanger on’s.

        Word has now spread amongst the foreign companies to avoid M’sia. Why do you think our FDI has been rapidly reducing year after year. While Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam & even Singapore has recovered from the 1997 financial crisis, we have yet to even break even, let alone recover.

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        • torque (Member) on May 25, 2010 at 9:51 pm

          GREED is the answer!

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        • tokmoh on May 25, 2010 at 10:39 pm

          Msians la… dah tau ni sume, lagi vote the same monkeys into office.

          What to do? Until we have the balls to vote that gay into office, we can only sit and watch as others around us grow.

          Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
 

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