Japan Automakers to Resume Domestic Operations

Japanese automakers resume almost all of the domestic assembly operations on April 18. Toyota Motor, Honda Motor and Nissan Motor expect the production level is around 50% of normal level and they could take more time to recover normal operation. However, the automotive steel shipment shows sign to recover gradually except for some makers and knockdown sets applications while almost all shipment stops for automotive steel now. The automobile production cut is expected to be more than 1 million units for finished car in March-May compared with normal level when the automakers couldn’t operate the capacity fully in and after May due to limited supply of some parts including microcomputer and plastics.

Toyota resumed the hybrid vehicle making operation at Tsutsumi plant and the group company’s Kyushu plant on March 28. The firm resumed the operation at Sagamihara plant of Central Motor on April 11 and resumes operation at all other domestic plants.

Nissan resumed the operation at Oppama plant on April 11 and 2 plants in Kyushu on April 13 and restarts the operation at Tochigi plant on April 18. The firm resumes the engine plant at Iwaki on April 18 while the Yokohama plant keeps making engine and suspension.

Honda resumed the production at Saitama and Suzuka plants on April 11. Suzuki Motor, Mitsubishi Motors, Fuji Heavy Industries and Mazda Motor resumed limited operations since late March.

However, the automakers cannot secure the parts. Renesas Electronics restarted the operation at Tsugaru, Tsuruoka, Takasaki and Kofu while the microcomputer making Naka plant still works to repair damage by the major earthquake and plans to resume a part of the operation in July. The firm has no time schedule to resume normal microcomputer making operation.

The parts shortage impacts on offshore operations. Toyota decided to stop offshore plants operation at plants in North America and Europe for more than 2 days while the firm reduces the operation in China. Honda also started to reduce the production in North America. The lower automobile operation would result in lower automotive steel export in and after mid-April while the steel export kept high level.