Quake aftermath to affect Toyota SA imports

Toyota Motor Corp. workers assemble a Mirai fuel-cell vehicle on the production line of the company's Motomachi plant in Toyota, Aichi Prefecture, Japan. President Akio Toyoda was at the factory to formally mark the roll out of a car named after the Japanese word for “future.” The Mirai, selling for 7.24 million yen, represents Toyota’s bet that the emissions-free cars of the future will run on hydrogen. Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg

Toyota Motor Corp. workers assemble a Mirai fuel-cell vehicle on the production line of the company's Motomachi plant in Toyota, Aichi Prefecture, Japan. President Akio Toyoda was at the factory to formally mark the roll out of a car named after the Japanese word for “future.” The Mirai, selling for 7.24 million yen, represents Toyota’s bet that the emissions-free cars of the future will run on hydrogen. Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg

Published Apr 20, 2016

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Johannesburg - Completely built-up (CBU) Toyota vehicles imported from Japan to South Africa will be affected by the earthquakes in Japan last week and at the weekend.

Clynton Yon, the senior manager of communications at Toyota South Africa Motors, confirmed yesterday that production across Japan would be suspended “for a couple of days”.

Read: Quakes in Japan: Toyota puts brakes on production

This would affect CBUs brought into South Africa from Japan, but the impact was not yet known. “We will only be able to give you a definitive answer later this week,” he said.

Yon said CBU vehicles imported to South Africa that would be impacted were the entire range of Toyota/Lexus vehicles, except for the Etios, which was produced in India; the Auris Hybrid, which was produced in the UK; the Yaris Hybrid, which was produced in Belgium; and the Aygo, which was produced in France.

Yon added that at this stage Hilux, Fortuner, Corolla and Corolla Quest, which were built in South Africa, were not affected.

Nissan South Africa failed to respond to an e-mailed list of questions about the possible impact of the earthquakes on its operations in South Africa.

Reuters reported on Sunday that Toyota had said it would suspend much of its production at plants across Japan this week after earthquakes in the country’s south led to a shortage of parts, while some other manufacturers extended stoppages due to damage to factories.

The agency said the earthquakes on Thursday and Saturday, which killed at least 41 people, reflected the vulnerability of Japanese companies to supply chain disruptions caused by natural disasters and also highlighted the “just in time” philosophy pioneered by Toyota and followed by many others.

It said companies had made efforts to address these problems after a 2011 earthquake and tsunami, which led to a nuclear disaster and nearly 20 000 deaths, badly dented output and the way that companies dealt with the impact of the latest quakes would likely show how robust these changes had been.

Reuters reported that Nissan said it would resume operations at its plants north of the epicentre from Monday.

Toyota said that the company would suspend operations in stages at most of its vehicle assembly plants across Japan for about a week beginning this past Monday, because the vehicle manufacturing company was unable to source parts from some of its suppliers.

Aisin Seiki, whose plants in Kumamoto sustained damage from the quake, said it would make the parts produced in the quake-hit city in other facilities at home and abroad.

The parts include sun roofs, door handles, semi-conductors and other products.

BUSINESS REPORT

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