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The Japanese automobile manufacturing giant Honda, recently announced that it looks forward to start a program that involves the cutting of costs in North America, where the company registered a significant decrease in sales.

The company is to take measures in cutting pay, closing its plants for 13 days and decreasing its production by 62,000 cars. It will cut bonuses and offer improved retirement packages. At the same time Honda said that the basic pay will stay at the same level.

According to latest official figures, the Japanese carmaker registered a 24.5 percent decrease in sales during March, compared to the same period last year. However, Honda showed a minor slump in sales if compared to other Japanese car manufacturers like, for instance, the biggest automobile manufacturer in the world Toyota. According to the data provided by the Japanese Automobile Dealers Association, the company's sales went down by 31.9 percent in March. This figure, however, does not include the company's luxury brand Lexus.

Beside the United States, Honda also implements its cuts in the United Kingdom, where workers will have their basic pay and working hours reduced by ten percent, according to last month's agreement. Another Japanese car maker, Nissan, also registered a significant decrease in sales. The company's sales slumped by 33.5 percent. Mazda  had an even greater decrease, registering a slump in sales of 36.3 percent.

It is worth mentioning that the overall sales of vehicles manufactured in the land of the rising sun went down by 31.5 percent, not including small engined mini cars.

"There is a continuing need to reduce our inventory. Regardless of job title or level within our organization, each Honda associate will share in the responsibility of doing what we must do to remain competitive," said Ron Lietzke, a spokesman of Honda.

Currently the Japanese car-making giant employs over 30,000 workers in the United States. Earlier this year, Honda stated that it will cut 3,100 jobs and reduce its production by 56,000 cars in Japan. In addition, the company decided to close its production facility in the United Kingdom for 4 months. Besides Honda, production cuts of a number of car-making facilities in North America will be performed by Toyota. The Japanese carmaker hopes to have a significant reduction of its stock of vehicles.

In addition, to the car-making industry the global economic crisis had a significant effect on a number of other Japanese companies. The Bank of Japan's quarterly Tankan survey, which involves over 10,000 Japanese companies, is of the man indicators of Japan's state of economy. One of the latest Tankan surveys showed that there is a huge decrease in business confidence among the biggest manufacturers in the country, registering the lowest level on record.

Company Profile

Honda is a Japanese company that makes a wide range of products ranging from automobiles, motorcycles, trucks and scooters and till robots, jet engines, water craft, marine engines, and products from the aeronautical field. The company's line of luxury vehicles includes such brands as Acura, sold in North America; Hondura, available in Honduras and Ben Tian, sold in People's Republic of China. Not so long ago the Japanese giant started manufacturing mountain bikes.

Currently Honda is world's number 6th largest carmaker and number 1one largest engine-maker. Each year the company manufactures over 14 million internal combustion engines. In Japan Honda is the second largest company, the first being Toyota and the third Nissan.