Ports shutdown may impact area businesses

A partial shutdown of ports along the West Coast began impacting production today at local Honda plants and could soon affect related businesses in the Grand Lake area.

Many workers at Honda of America Manufacturing in Marysville, Anna and East Liberty beginning today will perform maintenance activities and other tasks due to a shortage of parts, Honda spokesman Chris Abbruzzese told the newspaper today.

"Depending upon the duration of the parts shortage, associates will have some choices including reporting to work for full pay or using any paid vacation time they may have or choose to take time off with no pay," he said.

Production is being adjusted for one week, he said.

"This is a fluid situation due to the uncertainty of the situation at the West Coast ports, but based on what we know now, we anticipate that each plant will need to adjust production on multiple days between (today) and Feb. 23," Abbruzzese said.

He noted the company at this time does not have a sufficient supply of several critical parts such as electronics and transmissions to keep production lines running smoothly and efficiently.

Honda employs 11,000 people at the three Ohio plants.

Other impacted plants include Honda Transmission Manufacturing of America in Russells Point, Honda Manufacturing of Indiana in Greensburg and Honda of Canada Manufacturing in Allison, Ontario, Abbruzzese said.
Activity at West Coast ports has slowed in recent weeks due to an ongoing labor dispute between the dockworkers association and the organization representing shippers and terminal operators, according to The Associated Press.
President Barack Obama on Saturday sent U.S. Labor Secretary Tom Perez to California to help facilitate an agreement between the parties, the AP reported.

Abbruzzese said Honda has been working to maintain the flow of parts to its North American plants by using alternative means of transportation.

"Since January, we have been and continue to use a combination of air cargo and special truck shipments to obtain key parts," he said.

Regular hours have not yet been adjusted at the Celina Aluminum Precision Technology plant - a Honda supplier - but changes could occur in the coming days, according to assistant vice president Dennis Lee.

"We really can't evaluate that until we get confirmation from Honda," he said this morning. "We're still waiting for information to come."  

The Celina plant, which employs more than 520 associates, has cut overtime hours for efficiency but not because of the port problem, he said.

Lee said CAPT was notified Friday that delays in parts could occur in the near future. However, the company is about a week behind in getting orders "so we'll find out in a few days," he noted.

CAPT ships products to Honda facilities in Ohio, Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, California, Thailand and the United Kingdom, according to its website. The plant is the sole North American location for Honda's engine and frame component manufacturing.

Other area businesses linked to the auto industry that may be affected by the West Coast port dilemma are Setex and AAP in St. Marys and Greenville Technology in Greenville.

The situation could also eventually impact other local industries that rely on imports via the West Coast for manufacturing, area officials said.