AN accident at Southampton docks cost motor giant Honda 1,000 cars in delays at its Swindon factory and could scupper plans to celebrate the building of its two millionth car.

Hundreds of staff were sent home at the Japanese firm's £1.3 billion South Marston factory after part of a crane collapsed on a ship at Southampton Container Terminals, delaying the arrival of vital car parts.

One of the container ships prevented from docking due to delays caused by the accident was carrying gearboxes for Swindon from the Far East and had to be diverted to Amsterdam. From there the transmissions were brought to the UK on trucks.

Part of Southampton docks had to be evacuated but nobody was hurt in the incident, which saw the boom of the crane crashing down on to the Kyoto Express.

As a result Southampton Container Terminals suspended operations and the emergency services were called as a precaution.

The delivery to South Marston, where 5,000 people work, was a major one and such is the tight schedule of production, the factory had to stop the line at 10.30am on Wednesday. Two shifts were affected at South Marston and work on both the Civic and CR-V came to a halt.

"This crane failure at Southampton at the weekend has caused us a major problem with the unloading of key engine components," said Julie Cameron, head of corporate communications at Honda. "I'm pleased to say that production has now been fully restored. The car production was disrupted for almost 24 hours."

In four weeks' time the South Marston factory is due to celebrate the production of the two millionth vehicle built in Swindon.

A date has been fixed but whether or not the factory will be able to stick to it because of the shutdown is not known, as production schedules are being revised.

This year Honda will build about 150,000 Civics and 100,000 CR-Vs in Swindon.