Toyota Set To Resume Vehicle Production at All Japan Plants on April 18

- Toyota will resume output at all of its assembly plants in Japan on April 18 after halting production following Japan's earthquake, tsunami and nuclear reactor disaster last month.
- Honda on Friday said temporary reduced production in North America will be extended one week through April 18-22, but that it plans no layoffs at any of its North American facilities.
- Nissan told Inside Line on Friday that it is not experiencing "shortages with any U.S.-sold product."
- But the crisis is far from over, notes Deutsche Bank, which foresees price increases and some shortages of electronic entertainment content for some vehicles, as well as paint choices.


DETROIT — Toyota will resume output at all of its assembly plants in Japan on April 18 after halting production following Japan's earthquake, tsunami and nuclear reactor disaster last month.

Toyota said in a statement on Friday that it will reopen production at 50 percent of full operating capacity through April 27. After that, all production facilities will enter their annual spring holiday through May 9. "A decision on post-holiday production will be made after assessing the parts supply situation," it said.

Honda on Friday said temporary reduced production in North America will be extended one week through April 18-22, but that it plans no layoffs at any of its North American facilities. "We anticipate that additional production adjustments will continue after that date," it said in a statement.

Nissan told Inside Line on Friday that it is not experiencing "shortages with any U.S.-sold product."

Mazda resumed limited production of vehicles at its Hiroshima and Hofu plants on April 4 and said a decision on resumption of full-scale production would take place at a later date. Subaru parent Fuji Heavy Industries resumed limited production of passenger vehicles on Wednesday. It also said it has not decided when full-scale passenger-vehicle production will resume.

But the crisis is far from over, notes Deutsche Bank, which foresees some shortages of electronic entertainment content for some vehicles and paint choices, especially regarding European vehicles that rely on supplies from Japan.

"After discussions with several automotive suppliers and OEMs, we understand that for the European industry the current problem is mostly concerning electronics and paint," it said in a report. "But the biggest concern is for safety-related electronics. OEMs can obviously choose to reduce the amount of electronic entertainment content offered to customers; however, compromises in safety-related components are obviously not possible."

Deutsche Bank said price increases may be a result of the "supply shock" triggered by Japan's natural disaster.

"The industry can use the opportunity to increase selling price (or at least to be more aggressive than last year)," said the Deutsche Bank report. "Last week for ex (sic) Toyota increased selling price by 1.7 percent in the U.S. and Ford increased its prices both in the U.S. and Europe."

It also noted that it is still "unclear exactly which models will be impacted by supply constraints."

Deutsche Bank said most manufacturers have available inventory for the coming two weeks and "that availability becomes much more critical in the following period, i.e., from the middle of April onwards."

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