Profits at car giant Honda plunged by 38% during the first three months of this year after production was hit by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
And a senior executive at the group warned the second quarter could be even worse as its manufacturing plants outside Japan, including Swindon, continue to be hit by a shortage of Japanese-made components.
Earlier this month Honda halved production at the Swindon plant due to a lack of parts, believed to mainly be electronic components, from Japan. The 3,000 workers remain on full pay.
Honda also blamed the strong yen for a fall in sales over the period, which resulted in net profits falling from 72bn yen (£529m) to 44.5bn yen (£327m).
However, Honda full-year net profits nearly doubled to 534bn yen (£3.9bn) on strong sales last year.
Honda told investors it is unable to provide a financial forecast for the coming year because of the impact of the earthquake and Fumihiko Ike, a senior managing officer and director added: “We envision the second quarter being grimmer than the current quarter because even if production levels begin to pick up in Japan by then, there will still be a lag effect at our overseas factories.”
Honda was forced to close its Japanese plants for a month in the wake of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit the country on March 11.
Spokesman Tomohiro Okada said: “The March quake was the biggest reason for declining profit. We simply could not produce cars due to parts shortages after the quake.”
Car sales fell by 2,000 to 56,000 in Europe, including the UK, during the three-month period, mainly due to reduced demand for the Civic in the UK, Italy and Netherlands, although sales of the Swindon-built Jazz rose in Germany.
Earlier this week Honda said output plunged 62.9% year-on-year in March while worldwide total production was down 19.2% at 282,254 units.
Honda is the first of Japan’s Big Three car makers to report earnings since the earthquake and tsunami.
