London  - Production at a giant Honda car plant in Britain was being wound down Friday for a four-month closure due to falling sales.

More than 3,000 workers arriving for their last shifts before they return on June 1 will receive their full basic pay for the first two months, and around 60 per cent after that.

Unconfirmed reports have said that a further 1,000 workers had already signed up for severance deals.

Tokyo  - Honda Motor Co on Friday revised downward its earnings forecast for fiscal 2008 that ends in March after suffering from the yen's surge against other currencies and sluggish auto sales due to the global recession.

Japan's second largest automaker after Toyota Motor Corp said it expected a net profit of 80 billion yen (888.83 million dollars) for the full year, down from 185 billion yen it projected in December.

Johannesburg  - German automaker Volkswagen AG plans to cut 400 jobs at its South African plant, news reports said Friday.

Company spokesmen Bill Stevens said the cuts were necessary because of an expected 10-per-cent drop in new car sales this year, the SAFM radio station said.

Furthermore, Volkswagen plans to cut down production around the Easter holidays to cushion drops in export demand.

Volkswagen builds its right-hand-steered Golf cars in South Africa for export.

Tokyo - Toyota Motor Corp's operating loss for the fiscal year 2008 was to expand to 400 billion yen (4.44 billion dollars) from an earlier projection of a 150-billion-yen loss, media reports said Friday.

As Japan's leading automaker is suffering from declining demand and the yen's advance against other currencies, it was expected to incur the first-ever operating loss for the business year ending in March.

It was also expected to report the first net loss since 1963, when it started publishing net results, according to Japan's business daily The Nikkei.

The nation's largest car maker, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd recently announced that quarterly profit plunged by 54.3%, lagging forecasts in the midst of high raw material costs, lower volumes and adverse impact of currency changes.

On Thursday, New Delhi-based Maruti informed that its net profit plunged to 2.14 billion rupees ($43.8 million) in its fiscal Q3 ended December.

The company confirmed that there is a fall by 2.8% in the net sales to 46.26 billion rupees.

Chennai-based commercial vehicle manufacturer and Hinduja Group owned company, Ashok Leyland announced financial results for the third quarter of current financial year.

The company, under the impact of lower sales due to economic slowdown, posted decline of 82.64 per cent in net profit for the Q3 ended December, 2008. It stood at just Rs 21.09 crore in the reporting quarter as compared to Rs 121.49 crore during the same quarter last year.