The South African subsidiaries of Japanese car makers Toyota, Nissan, Suzuki and Honda are urgently assessing the impact of Friday's earthquake and tsunami on operations.
These manufacturers are reliant on Japan for some fully built up vehicle models imported to South Africa.
Any shortage of component supplies from Japan to domestic vehicle manufacturers Toyota South Africa Motors and Nissan South Africa, could also potentially disrupt local production.
Leo Kok, a Toyota SA spokesman, confirmed yesterday that many vehicles and components were sourced from Japan, including the Quantum, Prius, RAV4, Yaris, all Lexus and Land Cruiser products plus components used in its truck assembly operations.
Kok said Toyota Motor's 12 main plants in Toyota City in Nagoya were unaffected by the earthquake and tsunami, but four affiliate plants in Sendai, which manufactured both vehicles and components, had been damaged.
He said all of Toyota's plants in Japan had been shut until today and several teams were assessing the situation, not only of their affiliate plants, but also component manufacturers and service suppliers.
"We are eagerly awaiting feedback on how, if at all, it affects us (Toyota SA)."
Kok added that there were also infrastructure issues with ports in Japan being closed.
He said it would be difficult for Toyota SA to export any locally produced vehicles to Japan because its version of the Corolla varied slightly in design and specification from the model produced for the Japanese market. Japan was not a source country for the Hilux or Fortuner, the other two models produced by Toyota SA.
Veralda Schmidt, a Nissan SA spokeswoman, said some damage had been caused to buildings and equipment at Nissan Motor's plants in Japan and production had been suspended for a few days.
But Schmidt said plants in Oppama, Kyushu, Shatai and Yokohama would resume production today and its plants in Tochigi and Iwaki would reopen on Friday. Schmidt said some completely built up vehicle models Nissan sold in South Africa were imported from Japan, including the Patrol, GT-R and 370Z.
It could possibly source the Patrol from other plants but the GT-R and 370Z were built only in Japan, she said.
"The full extent of the damage has not been assessed. We are okay for stock in the short to medium term. As we are preparing for our new fiscal (year) to start on April 1, stock is docking shortly," she said.
Schmidt added that Nissan SA sourced various components from suppliers in Japan for models produced in South Africa, including the Tiida, Livina and NP300 Hardbody, but it had sufficient stock "for the short to medium term".
She said it was premature to comment on the possibility of Nissan SA producing additional vehicles for export because of production problems in Japan as the full impact of the disaster had not yet been assessed.
A Suzuki South Africa spokesperson said: "The Suzuki Motor Corporation factory in Hamamatsu is closed until Wednesday, mostly to assist with power sharing for Japan as a whole. The factory was not affected directly, but certain suppliers down the line have been affected and this will impact on our production."
Joeline Dabrowski of Honda SA, said its hybrid models, the Civic four-door and all Honda Accord models were sourced from Japan, but the local subsidiary also sourced cars from the UK and Thailand.
Dabrowski said with the information available, the disaster had not affected supply and Honda believed it had sufficient stock to see the company through this period.
She confirmed that all production activities at Honda plants in Japan had been suspended to assess damage to the facilities. This was because of a short supply of parts and the need to assess which suppliers had been affected and in view of the nationwide recovery efforts taking place in Japan.
Dabrowski said a decision on the resumption of production would be made towards the end of this week based on the status of the recovery of Honda's parts suppliers and Japanese society as a whole. -Business Report