The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Honda Motor, Toyota Motor, Nissan Motor, General Motors and Ford Motor

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May 25, 2011, 09:30 ET

CHICAGO, May 25, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Honda Motor Co. (NYSE: HMC), Toyota Motor Co. (NYSE: TM), Nissan Motor Co. (OTC: NSANY), General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) and Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F).

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Here are highlights from Tuesday's Analyst Blog:

Honda Cuts Working Days

Honda Motor Co. (NYSE: HMC) announced that its workers will take 14 additional days off from June to August due to disruptions in manufacturing operations driven by parts shortages. The parts shortage came on the back of earthquake and tsunami in Japan on March 11 that damaged many parts supplying companies' plants and paralyzed the power supply system.

The workers will take one extra day off in June, 10 days in July and 3 days in August. However, the workers need to work extra days in the latter half of the fiscal year to make up for the production shortfall.

The plants affected by the latest move include auto plants in Saitama and Suzuka and a motorcycle plant in Hamamatsu. Honda has informed the union that the workers may need to take additional days off in the coming months if the parts shortages continue.

Recently, Honda revealed that it will halve production at its Sumare, Brazil plant due to the same problem. The output at the plant will be reduced to 300 units per day from the current 600 units per day and production shifts will be curtailed to two from three. The company has already retrenched 400 employees at the plant.

The automaker has also alerted its U.S. dealers about supply shortages of its popular models, Civic compact and CR-V small SUV, due to lower availability of parts that will support the required production level to meet their demand.

Apart from these two models, Honda stated that it will cut supply of Acura luxury cars as well as TSX wagon and the RL sedan until later in the year. It also revealed that it will be able to import only a limited number of Japan-built cars in the U.S, which include Fit subcompact, CR-Z, Insight and Civic gas-electric hybrids until later in the year.

Recently, the company revealed that domestic production volume will remain at approximately 50% of the original production plan until the end of June. However, it will be normalized before the end of 2011.

Nearly every major automakers, including Toyota Motor Co. (NYSE: TM) and Nissan Motor Co. (OTC: NSANY) in Japan and General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) and Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) in the U.S. are plagued by the natural disaster in the country. They have either suspended or cut down their production in the wake of plant outages and parts supply shortage.

The shortages will mostly affect supply of fuel-efficient lineups that are highly demanded at the time when gasoline prices hit $4 per gallon in the U.S. As a result, car buyers may need to shift to alternative brands or postpone their purchases for some time.

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