Bridgestone Corporation said on Friday it hasn’t been able to resume tyre production at its fire-hit plant in Tochigi prefecture, north of Tokyo, Dow Jones reported.
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The tyre maker was originally aiming to resume operations at the heavily burnt plant from Friday evening, the report added.
“We were hoping to resume operations at the plant today, but we haven’t been able to get the green light from the local fire department yet,” a Bridgestone spokeswoman told Dow Jones, adding: “We won’t be able to restart the plant this week.”
The impact of the fire, which was bought under control about two days after it broke out on Monday, is still difficult to assess, analysts have told the news agency.
If it takes a month, for example, to get the plant back on line, Bridgestone would lose at least two to three billion yen, an analyst at Mizuho Investors told Dow Jones.
Monthly output at the Tochigi plant totals 6,700 metric tons, accounting for 13% of the company’s domestic production, the news agency noted.
The company spokeswoman told Dow Jones Bridgestone hopes to get approval from the fire department to resume production some time next week.
