Subaru Corporation said it had restarted production at its Gunma manufacturing plant in Japan that had been suspended since the evening of 16 January, 2019.

It had said earlier its only factory in Japan could be out of action for almost two weeks after it discovered a suspected defect in a power steering component.

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But "countermeasure" parts for electric power steering units for Forester, Impreza, and Subaru XV models have now become available.

Production of other models – stopped because they used the same assembly line – had also been resumed.

Subaru said the impact on consolidated financial performance was "currently under study".

Analysts had forecast the stoppage would make a serious dent to the company's operating profits this quarter.

The Asahi newspaper had said the impact on production so far likely exceeded 10,000 units and that delays were starting to be seen in deliveries to customers.

Subaru said earlier this month it planned to build 650,000 vehicles in Japan and 1.03m globally this year, up 1% on the previous year.

It has forecast record global sales of 1.08m vehicles in 2019, of which 700,000 were forecast for the US.