Companies
26/02/2020

Virus-Related Supply Issues Could Affect Toyota’s Production, Says The Firm




The spreading of the coronavirus outbreak to multiple countries outside of China could impact the supply chain of the company, Toyota Motor Corp said on Wednesday, which would in turn impact the operations in its factories in Japan. The auto maker predicted that the disruptions in its supply chain could impact production within the next few weeks.
 
The Japanese automaker has said that it would keep its production output at normal rill the week ending March 2 and following that, and starting with the week of March 9, it will decide on what and how to   continue operations at its domestic plants. The company currently has 16 factories in Japan that manufacture vehicles as well as vehicle components.
 
The prolonged closure of factories of supply china partners in China because of the outbreak of the coronavirus and the consequent closure measures issued by Chinese authorities has already affected a number of global automakers. While some factories have reopened after some relaxation of travel restrictions by Chinese authorities allowing migrant labor to rerun back from in-land to the factories, there are still some plants that are situated close to the epicenter of the outbreak that are yet to start production. Additionally, there are also logistics issues because of transportation restriction in some parts of China. There are many factories that are still closed under orders by regional authorities.
 
“We are receiving parts from China as normal for the moment, but we will assess the situation after the week of March 2,” a Toyota spokeswoman told Reuters.
 
About half of the 10.7 million cars that it has sold globally in 2019 had been manufactured by Toyota at its Japanese factories which makes it a major hum for production. 
 
All non-essential travel for employees in Japan will also be cancelled by it, the automaker also said. This is the latest move by a global company to curb operations as the speed of the virus outbreak appears to gather pace.
 
(Source:www.nytimes.com)

Christopher J. Mitchell
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