By David Bailey
DETROIT (Reuters) - Honda Motor Co Ltd (7267.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) has added U.S. overtime production to meet demand for its cars and crossovers but the automaker is braced for little sales growth in the U.S. auto industry next year, its top U.S. sales executive said this week.
"We have put some production back in, so we will continue to do that and adjust as we see the market go forward," Honda's John Mendel told the Reuters Autos Summit on Wednesday.
Honda, the No. 4 selling automaker in the United States, has seen its sales down 23.4 percent in 2009 through October, a bit better than the 25.4 percent U.S. industry sales decline.
The automaker has increased production of its CR-V crossover, Civic four-door sedan and Accord sedan with incremental additions at certain plants, Mendel said.
Honda has flexible manufacturing plants in the United States that allow it to add production readily when the inventory of vehicles drops too low. For example, three U.S. plants can build the high volume Civic compact car.
The automaker has added some occasional Saturday production at plants in Alabama and Ohio from late summer to meet demand and expects to continue that through the end of the year.
Honda took production out earlier in the year due to the industry slowdown and inventories have gotten pretty lean, Mendel said. At the end of October, overall inventory was at about a 40 days' supply and Honda prefers a range of 35 to 50.
U.S. auto industry sales were essentially flat in October with a year earlier, the best performance for the sector in a year outside of July and August when U.S. government "cash for clunkers" incentives boosted results.
For Honda, Accord sales were up 17 percent in October from a year earlier, CR-V sales rose 19 percent and Civic sales were down nearly 15 percent.
Mendel said it was "too early to tell" what the U.S. economy or auto sales would look like in 2010.
"From a planning assumption we are looking at another year like this year in terms of the overall industry," he said.
Early forecasts for 2010 remain subject to more uncertainty than normal after the unprecedented decline in sales this year, he said.
"I think it is good cocktail banter, but I'm not sure it does a lot of good at this point in time given the volatility we have seen so far," Mendel said.
(Reporting by David Bailey; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)
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