Honda is stepping up production and bringing back overtime at its Japanese plants in response to solid demand for its small cars and hybrids, the automaker said Friday.
Honda Motor Co. will have workers come in on weekends and other days off at its Saitama plant for the first time since the financial crisis, starting with one day in July. Honda is adding another extra work day in August, and two days each in September and October, said company spokesman Hiroyuki Horiuchi.
The Saitama plant, in a Tokyo suburb, is returning to a double-shift at one of its two assembly lines in August, because of the solid demand in Japan for the Freed hatchback, boosting production there to 1,450 vehicles a day from 1,100, according to Japan's No. 2 automaker.
Before the global slump, the plant had two shifts at both its lines. The latest move underlines signs of a gradual recovery at Honda, which has been riding out the slump relatively better than its bigger Japanese rival Toyota Motor Corp.
Honda is also having workers do overtime at another Japanese plant, in Suzuka, which makes the hit Insight hybrid, as well as the Fit subcompact.
Small ecological models like the Insight, Freed and Fit are doing well despite the downturn in the auto market, partly because of tax breaks and government incentives on green cars.
Honda had transferred about 400 workers at its Saitama plant to Suzuka, to protect jobs while adjusting production, but those workers will be returning to Saitama as Freed production there increases, it said.
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