Honda says may airlift steel to US, Canada plants

NEW YORK, June 28 Reuters reported that American Honda Motor Co, the U.S. unit of Japan's Honda Motor Co., said on Friday a current shortage of carbon sheet steel due to U.S. import curbs may prompt the automaker to take the costly step of airlifting steel from Japan to its U.S. and Canada factories.

"We've made arrangements to ship up to 2,000 tonnes (of carbon sheet steel) but that depends on availability (in the U.S.)," said Ron Lietzke, a spokesman for American Honda Motor.

If Honda cannot renegotiate some expiring contracts by next week with U.S. and Canadian steelmakers, which supplies Honda with 95 percent of carbon sheet steel, it may import them from Japan, Lietzke said.

The costly arrangement to airlift steel for auto exteriors comes amid a shortage of high-quality steel products in the United States, after President George W. Bush took steps to curb steel imports with a tariff of up to 30 percent.

Earlier, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei) said in its online Saturday edition that Honda will begin airlifting the steel this weekend to its Ohio plant from steelmakers such as Nippon Steel Corp, Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd, Kawasaki Steel Corp and Kobe Steel Ltd.

The unprecedented move of airlifting steel, dozens of times more costly than shipping via sea, may be followed by other Japanese automakers, said the report, monitored here on Friday.

The Nikkei said Honda will airlift some 2,000 tonnes of high-quality steel to North America by mid-July in 20 shipments, with more to come if Japan-U.S. trade spat over the safeguard continues.

Last time Honda resorted to airlifting steel bars used for engine components from Japan was when a supplier mill in the Unites States shut down last year, Lietzke said.

"It is very expensive to (airlift from Japan)," the spokesman said.