Mazda Motor said on Monday it has given up restarting operations by the year-end at a factory in Hiroshima Prefecture where a fire broke out last Wednesday.
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Kyodo News said the stoppage of the Ujina No. 1 factory will force an output cut of 7,832 vehicles, citing the affiliate of Ford Motor Co.
But Mazda will arrange for the Ujina No. 2 factory adjacent to the crippled plant to make 140 Demio subcompact cars on behalf of the No. 1 plant.
The fire destroyed 9,200 square metres of the 45,600 square-meter paint-coating facility at the 180,000-square-metre No. 1 factory, forcing 1,000 workers to evacuate.
The incident has forced the automaker to scrap the 200 vehicles damaged by the fire, Mazda said.
Output at the Ujina No. 1 factory has accounted for 30% of the automaker’s domestic output.
Mazda wants to return the factory’s operations to normal as soon as possible in 2005, company officials said earlier.
The No. 1 plant, capable of assembling 268,000 vehicles annually, was opened in November 1966. It produces RX-8 sports cars and Verisa passenger cars in addition to the Demio, Kyodo News said.
