Honda Motor Co., Japan’s second- largest carmaker, reported sales to dealers in China fell 2.7 percent in June as strikes at parts makers led the automaker to suspend production, creating a shortage of vehicles.

Sales fell to 50,113 units in the month, according to an e-mailed statement today, while rising demand for cars pushed up sales 22 percent in the first half of the year, from the same period a year earlier. Honda’s China sales also fell 10.3 percent in May from a year earlier, the company said.

Honda’s declines in sales come after it announced in May that it would raise production capacity in China by 28 percent to 839,000 vehicles a year by the second half of 2012 and introduce two new models to take advantage of rising demand. China’s wholesale passenger car sales rose 19 percent in June to 1.04 million units, according to a July 9 report by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

At least eight strikes in the past two months at parts suppliers to Honda, Toyota Motor Corp. and Nissan Motor Co. have forced the automakers to suspend production for days or hours. Before May, Honda’s last monthly sales decline was in March 2009 as the financial crisis undermined demand, according to the company.

Honda closed two plants in Guangzhou, Guangdong province on May 24 and factories in Guangzhou and Wuhan, Hubei province, on May 26 after 1,850 workers at a parts-making unit went on strike for higher wages. The four factories resumed production June 5.

Honda gained 3.1 percent to close at 2,687 yen on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The shares have dropped 14 percent this year, compared with a 9.5 percent decline in the Nikkei 225 Stock Average. – Bloomberg