The Japanese motor industry’s own earthquake shock continued on Friday as Honda was reported to have said three of its plants would remain closed for an extra day. Meanwhile, Nissan’s UK unit told just-auto it expected any production shortfall would be made up next month.
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The Associated Press (AP) said Honda, Toyota and other Japanese automakers remained unsure when factories would be working again after a major earthquake on Monday damaged piston ring and transmission seal supplier Riken.
Honda initially stopped assembly for two days until Friday but company spokesman Sakae Uruma today told the news agency that a car assembly plant, motorcycle factory and light car engine line would now stay closed on Monday.
Toyota Motor spokeswoman Kayo Doi told the Associated Press her company, which has halted production for the week at all domestic vehicle factories, had yet to decide when it would restart production.
“We are still considering what we’ll do as for Monday and after,” she was quoted as saying.
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By GlobalDataCompany official Yuko Matsuda told the news agency Nissan would decide early next week on operations for Wednesday and beyond. Production has stopped at some plants and this will continue throughout Tuesday.
A Nissan UK spokeswoman told just-auto on Friday afternoon that the UK unit was aware of changes to production schedules in three Japanese plants but had been told that any vehicle shortfall would be made up in August.
Apart from Mazda, the major Japanese automakers all source volume models for European sale from plants in this region, so any shortages are likely to affect mostly imported specialist models, though some bring in certain parts from Japan-based suppliers.
Both Mitsubishi Motors and Mazda told AP in Japan they planned to stop most operations at least until Monday.
However, Riken on Friday – via an anonymous source – told the news agency it hopes to restart production of some parts on Monday as staff had now finished replacing 80% of the damaged equipment though the plant still had no water and gas.
The source said the company did not know when production would return to pre-quake levels.
Riken told AP Toyota, Honda and other car companies had sent 650 workers to help it clean up.
Meanwhile, according to the Associated Press, analysts have said the delay – if short enough – probably would not affect domestic or export deliveries for big players such as Toyota, which has enough inventory to cover a few days of lost output.
Earthquakes have previously hurt Japan’s auto industry.
Citing the Nikkei business daily, AP noted that a 1995 ‘quake that badly damaged Kobe halted production at a major brake systems manufacturer, affecting nine car makers and reducing production that year by 40,000 vehicles.
