Honda to close UK plant with loss of 3,500 jobs - Sky - RTE.ie

Japanese carmaker Honda is set to announce the closure of its Swindon car plant with the loss of 3,500 jobs, Sky News reported today.

Sky News said the announcement by Honda could come tomorrow, and that the plant was scheduled to close in 2022.

A spokesperson for Honda was not immediately available to comment on the report.

However, a spokeswoman for Britain's business ministry said: "That's speculation so we wouldn't comment on that".

Honda built just over 160,000 vehicles at its British factory last year, where it makes the Civic and CV-R models, accounting for just over 10% of Britain's total output of 1.52 million cars.

The firm said last month that it will shut its British operations for six days in April to help it counter any border disruption from the Britain's departure from the European Union.

It has also said it was preparing to front-load some production at its plant to ship overseas or build up inventories.

Factors other than Brexit are said to have contributed to Honda's decision, Sky News reported, but any such announcement would come just over two weeks after Nissan cancelled plans to build its X-Trail sport utility vehicle in Britain.

The BBC also reported that Honda was due to announce the plant's closure.

Japanese carmakers Nissan, Toyota and Honda build roughly half of Britain's cars.

Along with the rest of the sector, they have been proponents of free and unfettered trade after Brexit, calling on politicians to provide clarity as soon as possible.

US carmaker Ford told British Prime Minister Theresa May last week that it may have to move some production out of Britain because of Brexit, according to a source on the call.

Honda has struggled in Europe and is building increasing proportions of its cars for sale outside of the continent in recent years.

It said earlier this month that its production volumes would be reduced to 570 cars per day and that it would make job cuts.

"This reduction in volume will not have any impact on our permanent resource levels, and is in line with our current production plans," the company had said.

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