The waves of the March 11 tsunami did not really impact Australia. But the aftershocks do – in a big way. Toyota Australia will cut production at its factory in Altona, Victoria state, in half for a whopping two months because of missing parts, says The Nikkei [sub].
Toyota’s is not alone: Ford announced today that it will cut back Australian vehicle production by 20 percent, and will lay off 240 workers.
Toyota Australia said that it will produce 9,600 vehicles in the two months. With a production cut in half, it is a fair assumption that it will cost them 9,600 cars, missing on the domestic and export markets.
Toyota will not lay off any workers and will find other employment for its 3,300 staff while the plant runs half day shifts.
In the meantime, the Financial Times puts the tsunami and the following nuclear disaster in the proper perspective: “Tepco makes Lehman seem a mere bagatelle. All talk about the earthquake and tsunami affecting only a small part of Japan’s gross domestic product looks optimistic. If power cuts carry on for the rest of the year, or longer, the very heart of Japan’s economy will be on life support.”
We here at TTAC can only read and nod. Two days after the tsunami, we wrote: “Power shortages to impact Japanese car production for months to come.” We didn’t predict that the very heart of Japan’s industry will be ripped out – but we write about cars, and we aren’t on the heart beat.
This is totally OT, but that is one Aussie Ford I could really love!
It has a bit too much Ford Mustang Cobra II going on for my taste. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_h3IRS9x8-Rc/Slrtc8LVmrI/AAAAAAAAC9o/OxpSCU2vAAY/s400/Farrah+og+cobra+II.jpg
It is infact called the Falcon XC Cobra. It was actually a special edition colour scheme designed to get rid of the last remaining coupe body shells. The cars themselves were considered a bit half-arsed at the time of their release, but are now very collectable.
The Ford lay-offs seem to have more to do with plummeting demand for its Falcon model than parts shortages.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/04/15/3192034.htm
“Ford announced today that it will cut back Australian vehicle production by 20 percent, and will lay off 240 workers.”
Nothing to do with the tsunami, its more to do with the fact that Ford are only shifting 1700 Falcons a month (not including Ute and Territory derivatives). This is in turn partly due to the temporary cessation of producing the LPG fuelled models which were very popular amongst fleet and taxi operators.
The more important factor is the long term decline in sales in the total large car sector. There are only 3 competitors of any significance, Commodore, Avalon, Falcon.
At one of the Territory launches Ford published a graph showing how the large sector was selling year by year, and the consequent growth in SUVs, small cars and so on. The decline in large car sales over 3 decades is enormous and continuous and continuing. My google fu is weak today and I can’t find that graph. Of course a less lazy person than me would use the VFACTS database to work it all out.
I wouldn’t call the Avalon a competitor of any significance given that it hasn’t been sold in Australia for 6 years!
Meanwhile, Hyundai and Kia are running their US plants flat out with lots of overtime. So far, Hyundai says that it has no parts problems on account of Japan’s troubles.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-15/hyundai-kia-s-u-s-car-factories-run-overtime-as-toyota-pares-production.html?cmpid=yhoo
We need to be mindful of what is a true parts problem and what blames the tsunami to mask sales problems. Like in 2008, when one could do no wrong and could (and did) explain any mess-up away with a “it’s the economy, you know.”
As for Hyundai and Kia, last I heard was that nearly all its parts were produced in Korea. Different country, you know.
If production in Korea would be down for a missing widget, then you could expect problems in the U.S. for cars that use the same widget. As long as all widgets are accounted for, no problem.
If someone voices surprise about the fact that there are problems with the U.S. assembly of cars whose JP production had been down for a month, while there is uninterrupted assembly of cars whose Korean production ran unimpeded, then I recommend coverage of badminton instead. Less mentally challenging.
Robinet tried to shed some light on this: “The Koreans’ exposure to Japanese suppliers is obviously much lower.” Apparently, not obvious enough.
Big car sales are going down here. However, the truly badly beat, is the Falcon. Commodore is still fighting, although the market is reducing and is being surrounded by Mazda 3 and Corolla.
Both Toyota and Ford are hiring engineering people right now.
On Holden’s favor is that they launched the Commodore Series II last year. And they started recently producing the Cruze.
Avalon? If you want a 1st gen one maybe. Here the V6 Toyota is the Aurion, and the Lion continues to eat its lunch.
@Bertel- Couldn’t you find a current photo? That image is decades old! The current Ford Falcon is a good looking, modern sedan quite similar in looks and proportions to the Holden Commodore (G8).
I had the opportunity to spend 4 weeks in Australia last fall and was amazed to see so many Commodores on the road. It appeared to be the most popular car, despite their near $5/gal gas prices. Ford was reportedly already struggling with weak sales, then, according to my Aussie friends.
I made another observation, disturbing to a GM guy. There seem to be more Toyota dealers in small towns than any other brand, similar to Ford and Chevy dealers here.
The Aussies to have more brands and models available than we do here, with Citroen, Renault, Peugeot and Fiat, among others.