TOKYO – Honda Motor Co. says its quarterly profit dropped 38.3 percent due to a slump in car production following last month's earthquake and tsunami.

Honda said Thursday its profit for the January-March quarter shrank to 44.5 billion yen ($545 million).

The magnitutue-9.0 earthquake and tsunami on March 11 destroyed many factories in northeastern Japan, causing severe auto parts shortages for Honda and other automakers.

The twin disasters forced Honda to shut down its entire production in Japan from March 14 to April 10, resulting in a production loss of 58,500 cars.