The ripples of the auto industry’s chip shortage are still being felt, as evidenced by Honda. Bloomberg reported on Wednesday that the automaker will suspend production in Japan on January 5 and 6. (Honda didn’t specify the affected factories.) In addition, all three of the automaker’s Guangqi Honda Automobile plants in China will shut down from December 29 to January 2.
The halt is an outgrowth of a chip shortage stemming from a recent geopolitical proxy war in the Netherlands, of all places. In October, the Dutch government, bowing to pressure from the Trump administration, seized control of the Chinese-owned chipmaker Nexperia. The company, which operates in the Netherlands, makes low-end chips that power automobiles, appliances and other tech.
The Dutch government’s official explanation for the seizure was that Nexperia had “serious governance shortcomings.” It cited a concern that Nexperia’s Chinese majority owner, Wingtech, would move key technology out of Europe. However, the New York Times later reported that the Dutch government had known about those plans since 2019.
Regardless, China retaliated by blocking exports of Nexperia-made chips. The Netherlands eventually suspended its intervention, following “constructive talks.” China then relaxed (but did not entirely remove) its restrictions through exemptions to export controls. The uneasy resolution hasn’t been enough to help supply chains fully recover.
Honda initially anticipated that production would return to normal starting in late November. So much for that. “No one [in the auto industry] prepared for geopolitical disruption,” automaker consultant Ambrose Conroy, CEO of Seraph Consulting, told Reuters in November. “And they’re still not prepared.”
