New York, Friday 21 November 2008: Honda will cut another 18,000 units from its planned production in the United States in response to the downturn in industry wide auto sales, the company said on Thursday.

The latest production cuts mean Honda will have cut 50,000 vehicles from its planned U.S. production since August when its sales began to fall in the world’s largest vehicle market.

Honda official said the cuts are on top of others announced earlier this year and bring the automaker’s total production cuts since August to 50,000 units. official said 12,000 of the cuts will be made at Honda’s plant in Lincoln, Ala., which makes the Odyssey minivan and Pilot sport utility vehicle. Honda now expects to build 1.41 million cars and trucks in North America in the fiscal year that ends next March, down from 1.43 million a year earlier. Honda’s U.S. sales fell almost 4 percent through October, compared with a nearly 12 percent decline for Toyota and a 7 percent drop for Nissan. The sales slump has hit U.S. automakers harder, forcing General Motors, Ford and Chrysler to slash production and plead for a $25 billion (16 billion pound) federal bailout intended to give them the cash needed to survive the downturn.