Honda car sales hit by typhoon

...left the company's production facilities under up to 3m of water.

Honda Australia spokeswoman Mel Cross says a recent Civic shipment from Thailand and stock on the ground will satisfy orders "in the medium term".

Production at the site in Rojana has been suspended until October 21 and hundreds of cars are submerged but Honda can't assess the damage to its stock or the factory because the area is still under an evacuation order.

"We cannot estimate the damage because we cannot access the facility," said a Honda Asia spokesman. The site has an annual capacity of 240,000 vehicles and last year made more than 170,000 Civic, Accord, Jazz, CR-V, City and Brios vehicles.

Three Toyota factories weren't flooded but production was suspended because the water has blocked roads and supplies can't be delivered to the sites. The plants produced 630,000 vehicles last year, including the Camry and Corolla.

The disruption comes just as Honda and Toyota started to recover from the Japanese earthquake and tsunami earlier this year. The outlook isn't as sodden for the US carmakers in the country. The Ford-Mazda joint venture factory resumed production after a two-day stoppage to assess the supply chain.

Some parts have been delayed but the plant can still operate.  GM's factory is also intact but facing some supply shortages.

Pitak Pruttisarikorn, the senior vice president of Honda Automobile Thailand, has appealed to the Thai government to exempt taxes on the import of car spare parts and machinery from non-ASEAN countries to help shore up the auto industry.

The Japanese automaker also says it will not consider relocating, having done business in the country for 47 years. "Although the flooding disrupts the export of auto parts, (we) will try to find sources from other countries to compensate for the shortage," Pitak says.

The floods are expected to hit Thailand's projected output of 1.8 million vehicles this year.