Honda closes its only British plant, endangering 3,500 jobs

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The Japanese automaker announced Tuesday the closure of a major manufacturing plant in the English city of Swindon, which employs 3,500 people.

Honda (HMC) has built more than 3 million cars in Swindon since the opening of its factory three decades ago. The factory currently manufactures the Honda Civic and is capable of producing up to 150,000 cars a year. It will close in 2021 according to the plan announced by Honda.

Swindon is the only automobile factory of the Japanese company in the European Union. Vehicles manufactured in the factory are exported to more than 70 countries.

The restructuring will also include Honda's Turkey operations, which currently produce 38,000 Civic sedans per year. This will stop in 2021.

60% of UK trade still exposed to Brexit shock

"In view of the unprecedented changes affecting our industry, it is critical to accelerate our electrification strategy and restructure our global operations accordingly," said Honda Motor Europe President Katsushi Inoue in a statement. a statement.

Honda's statement made no mention of Brexit, but the uncertainty surrounding Britain's future trade relations with its larger export market is one of the big clouds hovering over the British car industry .

Britain is about to leave the European Union in less than 40 days, but the details of what will happen next will still be uncertain. Motor company executives warned that leaving the block without agreement to protect the trade would be devastating for the country's auto industry.

The Swindon Honda plant will close in 2021.
From Japan Nissan (NSANF) Earlier this month, the construction project for its new X-Trail SUV was abandoned at its Sunderland, England plant. He cited the uncertainty surrounding Brexit as one of the reasons for this decision.

Other builders have announced plans to close their plants for some time immediately after the Brexit to avoid any disruption.

BMW (BMWYY) said he would close his Mini factory in England for a month of maintenance immediately after the Brexit because he can not be sure of getting the parts he needs if Britain left the UK. European Union without agreement.

Charles Riley and Ivana Kottasova contributed to this report.

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