Toyota to Decide Tomorrow on Resuming Japanese Output

By AutomotiveNews
Toyota Motor Corp. plans to decide by tomorrow when it can resume production at auto- and parts-assembly plants in Japan after the nation's strongest earthquake on record.

The company, which closed all plants in Japan until March 16, aims to decide on restarting production by tomorrow afternoon, said Paul Nolasco, a Toyota spokesman in Tokyo.

The company also slowed North American production by canceling overtime shifts to conserve parts until conditions in Japan are better understood, said Mike Goss, a U.S.-based spokesman.

Four days after the magnitude 9.0 quake that may have killed as many as 10,000 people and damaged more than 60,000 homes and buildings, Japanese and overseas manufacturers, including Samsung Electronics Co., Ford Motor Co. and Boeing Co., are assessing the impact on their operations.

Toyota's profit may be cut by 6 billion yen ($72 million) for each day of lost operations in Japan, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. estimated. Japan's "automotive industry is facing acute and unprecedented problems relating to component and power-supply shortages," said Paul Newton, a London-based auto analyst for IHS Automotive.

The absence of component supplies and adequate power will make it difficult even for the least-affected automakers to resume production this week, he said.

Completing assessment

"We're waiting for TMC to complete an assessment of suppliers in Japan and our suppliers' suppliers," said Goss, who's based in Erlanger, Kentucky. None of Toyota's factories in the northern Tohoku region sustained serious damage, the company said.

Toyota sent 60 employees to Tohoku to assist workers and their families and assess factory damage, Nolasco said.

The Primearth EV Energy Co. plant, Toyota's subsidiary that makes batteries for hybrid vehicles such as the Prius in Miyagi prefecture, suffered minor damage to production lines, Nolasco said.

Toyota doesn't yet know whether shipments of models built in Japan for sale in the U.S. will be significantly delayed, said Steve Curtis, a spokesman for Toyota's U.S. sales unit in Torrance, California.

Tahara port

The company's port facility in Tahara, Japan, for vehicle shipments to the U.S. wasn't damaged by the quake and tsunami, Curtis said.

While Toyota produces about 70 percent of the vehicles it sells in the U.S. at local plants and sites in Canada and Mexico, it relies on Japan for most of its Lexus luxury models, Scion vehicles and the Prius hybrid.

Honda Motor Co., which suspended production in Japan until March 20, hasn't altered its U.S. assembly schedule, said Ron Lietzke, a spokesman for the Tokyo-based company's manufacturing unit in Marysville, Ohio.

Nissan Motor Co. hasn't adjusted assembly operations at its plants in the U.S. and Mexico, said Paula Angelo, a Nissan spokeswoman.