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posted by martyb on Tuesday February 19 2019, @06:49PM   Printer-friendly
from the civic-minded? dept.

Honda Confirms Plan to Leave Britain as Brexit Looms

The Japanese automaker Honda has become the latest business to make plans to leave Britain as global forces reshape the car industry and the country prepares to exit the European Union.

Honda will close its plant in Swindon, England, which employs 3,500 workers, by 2021, it confirmed on Tuesday. The factory, which produces about 150,000 cars a year, will close once its current line of Civic cars comes to an end.

"In light of the unprecedented changes that are affecting our industry, it is vital that we accelerate our electrification strategy and restructure our global operations accordingly," Katsushi Inoue, the chief officer for European operations, said in a statement.

The decision was a "devastating decision for Swindon and the U.K.," Greg Clark, Britain's business secretary, said in a statement. "The news is a particularly bitter blow to the thousands of skilled and dedicated staff who work at the factory, their families and all of those employed in the supply chain," Mr. Clark said, adding that he would convene a "task force" to keep the employees in work.

Also at CNN.


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 19 2019, @07:06PM (7 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 19 2019, @07:06PM (#803611)

    Mr. Clark said, adding that he would convene a "task force" to keep the employees in work.

    This taskforce has a straightforward means of achieving its goal: cancel Brexit. This is going to be the only way to prevent these sort of losses, and this late in the game, even this might not suffice.

    I said it would be straightforward, not easy. Right wingnuts will go ballistic, and Trump/Putin will have a conniption, but it would go a long way toward saving the UK's position in the world, their economy, and their independence from the US. Unfortunately it would also prevent the worst of the right-wing excesses of the Tories (like privatizing and/or eliminating the NHS) which is something Teresa May won't countenance.

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Sulla on Tuesday February 19 2019, @07:21PM (3 children)

      by Sulla (5173) on Tuesday February 19 2019, @07:21PM (#803623) Journal

      How many jobs were lost in the UK over the last few decades because the EU gave companies incentives to move production from the UK/France/Germany to the less developed members?

      --
      Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
      • (Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Tuesday February 19 2019, @08:59PM

        by fyngyrz (6567) on Tuesday February 19 2019, @08:59PM (#803667) Journal
        • Take job with foreign company / encourage foreign company to set up locally
        • Act surprised when foreign company does something not in the local interest
        • Profit

        --
        It's only when a mosquito lands on a man's testicles
        that he realizes violence is not always the answer.

      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday February 20 2019, @06:45PM (1 child)

        by DeathMonkey (1380) on Wednesday February 20 2019, @06:45PM (#804103) Journal

        Negative a bajillion. Which adds exactly as much substance to this thread as your concern troll.

        If you would like to argue that they lost jobs due to this maybe you should try presenting some evidence,

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 20 2019, @07:29PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 20 2019, @07:29PM (#804148)

          Should be straightforward. Count the number of (coal) miners that lost their jobs during the '80s and '90s, then contrast that against the mining jobs opening in Spain, Italy and Greece.

    • (Score: 5, Insightful) by janrinok on Tuesday February 19 2019, @07:27PM (2 children)

      by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday February 19 2019, @07:27PM (#803627) Journal

      Honda have already made a statement saying that Brexit is NOT a major factor in this. The EU has recently signed a deal with Honda so they no longer have to pay tariffs on vehicles produced outside the EU. There is no benefit to Honda from having any manufacturing inside the EU anymore. Honda have also decided to concentrate on the US, China and Japan for their future manufacturing, particularly on future electric cars.

      • (Score: 2) by turgid on Wednesday February 20 2019, @07:56AM (1 child)

        by turgid (4318) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday February 20 2019, @07:56AM (#803914) Journal

        Honda are trying to be very polite and not inflame the ERG/UKIP/Alt-Wrong/Far-Wrong types who are threatening the country with "civil unrest" if they don't get their Brexit. They are also trying not to upset the Conservative Party in general because they don't want to burn their bridges.

        Anyone who works for a living in the UK can tell you this. What companies are saying in public regarding Brexit is very mild indeed compared to their internal discussions and preparations.

        Disclaimer: I do not work for Honda.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 20 2019, @09:43AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 20 2019, @09:43AM (#803935)

          Honda are trying to be very polite and not inflame the ERG/UKIP/Alt-Wrong/Far-Wrong types who are threatening the country with "civil unrest" if they don't get their Brexit

          Eh?, I watched a bespectacled young oik of an economist on the Beeb rabbit on at length about how the Japanese have been planning to move production to the Far East for a while (closer to what they see as their main future growth market), mutterings about how it was more or less the bribes, sorry, subsidies which made them irrationally set up shop in Britain in the first place, and the EU-Japan deal removing the final barrier to this shift. Only as an afterthought, he added, oh Brexit..
          Seems like the only people surprised by this move are the poor plebs who worked there.
          As to 'civil unrest', if it happens it'll be fun watching the confused looks on the faces of the riot police, they're more used to cracking the skulls of lefties, students and pseudo-hippies, not, as it were, their eigenes Volk..

          Anyone who works for a living in the UK can tell you this. What companies are saying in public regarding Brexit is very mild indeed compared to their internal discussions and preparations.

          Well, as someone whose post was made redundant allegedly thanks to the 'Brexit preparations' the lot I worked for made (blah, blah, blah, projected downturn, blah, blah, blah, scaling back operations, blah, blah, blah ) can I just say that there's a serious amount of egregious shite being talked, and they're all lining up to see how best they can use the whole Brexit debacle as the ultimate fucking excuse for every shitty weasel move/stunt they've dreamed about implementing but felt they couldn't get away with...
          Hint: my post was made redundant, coz Brexit...fast forward a couple of months a remarkably similar but lower paid post is filled by a minion I trained..

          Bitter, Moi?

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 19 2019, @07:26PM (8 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 19 2019, @07:26PM (#803625)

    Honda managers clearly said that the exit is related to global events (see the list in the article.) Production will be moved to Japan. Turkey will be also impacted, while having no Brexit on their hands. Other companies are also impacted. The writer associated this event with Brexit for political reasons, and this article is yet another propaganda piece.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 19 2019, @07:34PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 19 2019, @07:34PM (#803629)

      Yeah, it's not untruthful but horribly misleading.

      Like the similar headline: "Anonymous Coward prepares to have a Sandwich as Brexit looms." Its just as true and correlated as the headline of the article.

      • (Score: 3, Funny) by driverless on Wednesday February 20 2019, @05:12AM

        by driverless (4770) on Wednesday February 20 2019, @05:12AM (#803875)

        "Anonymous Coward prepares to have a Sandwich as Brexit looms."

        My marriage broke up after I caught my wife in bed with a sandwich, you insensitive clod!

    • (Score: 2) by janrinok on Tuesday February 19 2019, @07:35PM (2 children)

      by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday February 19 2019, @07:35PM (#803630) Journal
      The quoted article is actually dated yesterday while the company announcement was this morning (19 Feb). I suspect the article contains some speculation rather than reporting what Honda's statement actually said. Still, I'm sure there will be plenty here who will with to blame it on Brexit.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 20 2019, @07:22PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 20 2019, @07:22PM (#804143)

        Or, you know, it could be that the story (from the EU) and the announcement (from Japan) we're in different time zones.

        • (Score: 2) by janrinok on Wednesday February 20 2019, @08:09PM

          by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday February 20 2019, @08:09PM (#804181) Journal
          Except that the first announcement was made in the UK, and not in Japan.
    • (Score: 5, Insightful) by zocalo on Tuesday February 19 2019, @09:58PM (2 children)

      by zocalo (302) on Tuesday February 19 2019, @09:58PM (#803695)
      It's a bit more complex than that, something even Honda acknowledged in their official statement; the EU just signed a trade deal with Japan removing tariffs from Japanese car imports (amongst other things). This is what allows Honda (and potentially Nissan and Toyota too, I guess) to relocate their manufacturing back to Japan without having to incur import duties. However, since the UK is leaving the EU and may not have a similar arrangement in place, they *might* end up paying duty for cars manufactured in the UK that they want to export to Europe. That gives us two possible financial sums for Honda:

      Costs of relocating manufacturing back to Japan + higher costs of transportation of cars to Europe.
      Lower costs of transportation of cars from UK to Europe, but potential for significant import duties in the event of an increasingly likely no-deal Brexit, WTO scenario.

      Pretty obvious the former is the lower risk, especially if they were looking at consolidation anyway (viz. closing their plant in Turkey as well). Of course, if the UK were not leaving the EU, they might have come to a different conclusion since that would entail zero cost of relocation *and* zero import duty, which is an even more financially sound decision than either of the two options effectively left on the table.
      --
      UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
      • (Score: 1) by Sulla on Tuesday February 19 2019, @11:14PM (1 child)

        by Sulla (5173) on Tuesday February 19 2019, @11:14PM (#803746) Journal

        In regards to Toyota it seems they are focusing more vehicle production in the US. Fukushima caused them to lose a large portion of their battery production for their Lexus hybrids, so they moved the facilities to the US rather than rebuild in Japan. This is probably a Toyota only thing because they already have a huge manufacturing base here in the US, but I wonder how this could effect Toyota manufacturing in the EU.

        --
        Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 20 2019, @02:51AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 20 2019, @02:51AM (#803823)

          Also they probably will not abandon the factory. They will sell it.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 19 2019, @09:12PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 19 2019, @09:12PM (#803674)

    If you don't make X cars in UK, you cannot sell X cars in UK. What is so difficult with that approach?

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 20 2019, @12:17AM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 20 2019, @12:17AM (#803774)
      The fact that this approach is not correct? Foreign cars can be imported and sold inside UK. It is up to the UK government to determine how high the tariffs will be.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 20 2019, @07:48AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 20 2019, @07:48AM (#803912)

        I think that may have been a suggestion rather than a statement of the current situation.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 19 2019, @10:00PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 19 2019, @10:00PM (#803696)

    His turtling is really annoying

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