Honda Motor Co is likely to cut output at home by over 150,000 units in the year from April, bringing its Japanese production below 1 million vehicles for the first time in 14 years, the Nikkei business daily reported.
Honda is expected to set its domestic output forecast at above 950,000 but below 1 million units, against 1.147 million vehicles forecast for the year ending on March 31, Nikkei said.
Japan's No 2 automaker, grappling with sluggish sales at home and overseas amid the global economic slowdown, will announce production targets for the new business year on Monday when it holds a meeting with officials from major auto parts producers it has dealings with, Nikkei said.
Honda saw its global production plummet nearly 34 percent in January from a year earlier, while top Japan automaker Toyota Motor Corp said its world-wide output plunged nearly 43 percent. The last time Honda's production fell below 1 million units at Japanese factories was in the fiscal 1995/96, when its output hit 955,660 automobiles in the face of a company management crisis.