Production at Japan’s vehicle plants is slowly coming back to life with Nissan announcing that it has resumed limited operations at five of its plants in Japan, while vehicle production is set to start on Thursday.
Japan’s second largest manufacturer said production of repair parts for overseas manufacturing has restarted at its Oppama, Tochigi, Yokohama, Kyushu and Nissan Shatai plants. Meanwhile vehicle production will start Thursday and will continue while supplies last, the company said.
Analyst Goldman Sachs has calculated that one day’s lost production costs, the Japanese manufacturer about 2 billion yen in profit and the company said that restoration of its Iwaki engine plant in northern Japan will take longer than the other plants.
Meanwhile Toyota, the biggest car maker in 2010 will maintain the closure of its assemble plants until 22 March, by which time it estimates it will have lost the production of 95,000 vehicles.
Fellow auto-maker Honda will resume production a day later and has told US dealers that it would review each dealer’s “product allotments for vehicles to be built after May”.
Both Mazda and Fuji Heavy Industries will review their own shut-downs on Sunday before re-opening production.
With the Japanese disaster affecting production across the globe, Renault Samsung, the South Korean unit of the French car maker, said it will cut back on weekend and overtime production because of a potential parts shortage. General Motors has temporarily idled its pick-up truck plant in Louisiana due to a parts shortage and its South Korean unit said it was also considering cutting back on weekend and overtime production.
Suzuki Motor Corporation’s headquarters, manufacturing plants and shipping ports weren’t affected directly by the earthquake, but its supply chains were. The company uses some suppliers and subcontract facilities that are located within the affected area, and the extent of the damage to these facilities is being assessed. The temporary suspension of production at all six Suzuki plants has been extended to 21 March 2011.
