Toyota continues production stoppage until next Tuesday

Toyota first closed these production facilities on Monday to focus on the relief effort after the earthquake, with the stoppage already resulting in a production decline of 40,000 vehicles. Toyota expects that this down time may cost the company around 95,000 vehicles in total, with the automaker losing around $80 million US dollars for each day they are shut down.

Even though the 12 main production facilities in Japan are shut down, on Thursday Toyota will open 7 plants that manufacturer replacement parts as to supply parts stores and dealerships around the world. These same 7 plants will commence making new car components for overseas production facilties starting on Monday as they try to protect the assembly plants outside of Japan against increased down time due to part shortages.

The key cause in the continued production stoppages at Toyota’s main 12 assembly plants is the intermittent power supply issues, combined with the damages suffered by Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers. The nuclear power plant problems since the earthquake in Japan has had a heavy impact on their electric infrastructure and with the amount of power drawn by an automotive assembly plant, Toyota’s decision to keep the plants shutdown until next week comes as another way that they are helping the citizens of the affected area dig out after the string of natural disasters.

Toyota has also announced that their Primearth EV Energy battery plant, where the hybrid batteries for the Toyota Prius are produced sustained only minor damage to the assembly line, although the company still hasn’t indicated as to whether or not the damage will slow production.

Source: Reuters

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