We had predicted early on that “the disaster in Japan could have a major impact” not just on the Japanese auto industry, but on the auto industry worldwide. If anyone had silently hoped (you can’t say these things aloud) that the disaster over there would provide breathing room for the car industry over here, then get ready for a disappointment. First automaker to be affected over here by the Japan syndrome is GM. Read More >
Once Japanese automakers have dug out from under the rubble, cleared the ports and start shipping again, they will face a possibly bigger problem: A killer yen that has accumulated strength in an absolutely abnormal fashion over the last few days. Read More >
Reforma, a local newspaper Mexico’s Jalisco state, writes today (via Reuters) that Honda may idle 1,100 employees at its factory there. Ruben Resendiz, spokesman fro Honda Mexico told the paper that closed airports and ports are affecting inventories. This stoppage would affect half of Honda’s employees at the plant. Read More >
On Thursday, Toyota will restart seven parts plants in central Japan to supply replacement parts for the domestic market, The Nikkei [sub] reports. Production of parts for overseas markets will start Monday. Read More >
“The ripple effect of the stoppages to supply and production in Japan will be felt in many parts of the world, including the United States, China, and Europe, as many key parts and technology are exported to global operations from Japan, writes IHS Global Insight in a research report. “Disruption to production of parts that are unique and cannot be easily shifted has the potential to hit output badly at several automakers in the near term.”
First to be hit will be Japanese production sites overseas which often import 20 percent or more of their parts from back home.
However, plants owned by U.S. or European companies are not immune. Read More >
For days, Toyota had no word from its plants in the northern Japan quake zone. Many communities in the region are still cut off. Over the weekend, Toyota sent two truck convoys up north. On Sunday, a convoy of six water tankers, two fuel tankers and nine cargo trucks reached the area which now suffers wet weather and below freezing temperatures. A second convoy arrived on Monday. Read More >
Reuters found another problem for Japanese car makers: They will miss out on China’s luxury car market. Other than the German competition, the top Japanese manufacturers export all their luxury cars to China. “With Toyota, Honda and Nissan having shut all of plants in Japan after the earthquake and tsunami, exports to China will suffer,” says Reuters. That comes at a very inconvenient time. Read More >
High profile German companies not only shut down their Japanese operations like the Japanese colleagues. They are also recalling Germans back to Germany. Read More >
Japan’s industrial output suffered major damage after one of the world’s strongest earthquakes, followed by an unprecedented tsunami hit Japan last week. Global supply chains are disrupted.
This is today’s rundown on auto plant closures. Read More >
Even if Japan’s nuclear power plants will be brought under control, even if roads, rails and ports are back up, the Japanese car industry will have to deal with a more serious problem: Blackouts.
On Monday, Tokyo Electric Power, or Tepco, will start turning off the power for three hours each to selected areas. This will happen once, in some areas twice per day. When the schedule was put up on Tepco’s website, the server crashed. That was just the beginning of the problems. Read More >
Amidst the rubble of earthquake and tsunami-racked Japan, a strange phenomenon: Three of the smallest local automakers suffered no interruption in production, while the very largest seemed to be hit the hardest. Toyota, Honda, and Nissan have all suffered some kind of production interruption since the quake hit, while Mazda, Suzuki and Mitsubishi remain untouched according to Automotive News [sub]. In a tragedy like this, some might be tempted to ascribe this division of suffering to some universal sense of justice, a cosmic leveling of Japan’s automotive playing field. But, as the map above proves, this twist of fate is purely geographic… Mazda, Mitsubishi and Suzuki happen to have all of their plants located well south of the affected area near Sendai. Besides, Subaru, one of Japan’s smallest automakers, closed five factories. There’s no making sense of a mess like this…
Of all the dramatic footage coming from the devastation of the Japanese Tsunami, perhaps one of the most arresting images is of a flood of cars washing inland. Seeing a parking lot worth of cars reduced to so much flotsam and jetsam is a stern reminder of nature’s power, and a powerful symbol of what Japan is going through right now…
Read More >
An 8.9 earthquake, the world’s sixth largest, followed by a massive tsunami, rocked the north of Japan. The center is close to Sendai, where Toyota recently opened a new plant. Sendai took the brunt of the quake. Telephone service all over Japan is severely degraded. Via a very spotty cellphone line, I reached Toyota spokesman Paul Nolasco, who was standing outside his office building, like most people in Tokyo. Read More >
Today, Akio Toyoda presented Toyota’s „Global Vision“ to the press in Tokyo. Sure, there are the usual affirmations to “continue to furnish world-class safety,” and to “continue to contribute to environmental quality and to human happiness.” But what are they really up to? Read More >
Some overly excited blogs may report that Honda is exiting the growth market India. Careful. Indeed, Reuters reports that “Hero Investments has agreed to buy Honda Motors Ltd’s 26 percent stake in Hero Honda Motors for around $851 million in a deal that will see the Japanese automaker exit its joint venture in India after more than 26 years.” So are they outta there? Read More >
Recent Comments