Renesas to resume full chip output in Sept.

Renesas, the world's No. 1 maker of automotive microcontrollers and a key bottleneck in Japan's parts shortage, says it will resume pre-earthquake output levels in September – a month earlier than expected.... Read More »

Toyota to dealers: U.S. inventory adequate at 45-days supply

Toyota, moving to ease consumer and dealer concerns about vehicle availability following the March earthquake in Japan, told retailers today it has 45 days of inventory on hand.... Read More »

Honda to dealers: More vehicles coming in July, August

Honda told its U.S. dealers Thursday it expects production to bottom-out this month before increasing in July and August, signaling that efforts to repair supply chains ravaged by Japan's March 11 earthquake and tsunami are gaining traction.... Read More »

Dealers adjust advertising as earthquake impacts inventory

Some U.S. dealers are altering their local advertising plans as parts shortages and production cuts stemming from the March 11 Japanese earthquake and tsunami have caused inventories to shrink.... Read More »

Toyota: Prius supplies to recover to about 70% in June

Toyota expects U.S. supplies of its top-selling Prius hybrid to recover to about 70 percent of normal levels next month after output was disrupted by Japan's record earthquake. Toyota's U.S. unit should get at least 36,000 Prius cars to sell in June, July and August, or about 12,000 a month, said Bob Carter, group vice president for U.S.... Read More »

Japan automakers to rest weekdays in summer to ease burden on grid

Japanese automakers and suppliers have collectively agreed to work on weekends and rest instead on Thursdays and Fridays during the peak power consumption months in the summer, an industry group said today.... Read More »

Nissan to reinforce factory foundation on Japan quake

Nissan Motor Co. CEO Carlos Ghosn said the automaker plans to invest 3 billion yen ($37 million) to reinforce the foundation of its engine factory in Iwaki, Fukushima prefecture, after Japan's record earthquake in March disrupted output. Nissan has already started work on the foundation, Ghosn said during an interview today in Iwaki.... Read More »

Honda working to quicken return to normal operations

Honda Motor Co. expects to recover from the March 11 earthquake earlier than expected and return to normal production before the end of the year. The automaker joins Toyota Motor Corp. and Nissan Motor Co., which have said production recovery is faster than earlier expected. Honda plans to prioritize U.S.... Read More »

Toyota to resume full European output in June

Toyota says its European output will return to pre-earthquake levels on June 1, following the resolution of parts supply problems and the resumption of full production at five European plants in in the UK, Turkey, Poland and France.... Read More »

Ghosn says fewer than 20 quake-hit suppliers are in critical state

Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn said fewer than 20 suppliers are still in a critical situation, down from 40 in March, after Japan's record earthquake halted factories and crimped domestic sales. "Much less than half" of the suppliers have yet to recover, allowing Nissan Motor Co.... Read More »

Nissan beats profit estimates after earthquake slows sales

Nissan Motor Co. posted better-than-expected quarterly profit after Japan's record earthquake halted factories and crimped domestic sales.... Read More »

Toyota: North America output to hit 70 percent of pre-quake levels by end of June

Toyota said today that it expects to restore North American production to about 70 percent of normal levels by the end of June -- two months earlier than had been anticipated.... Read More »

Subaru expects U.S. output to return to normal by Nov.

Subaru said its U.S. auto production will limp along at 80 percent of normal levels until summer and gradually ramp up to normal by November. Ikuo Mori, CEO of Subaru parent Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd.... Read More »

Renesas sees full recovery by Oct., starts shipping chips in Aug.

Renesas Electronics, the world's biggest maker of automotive microcontrollers and a key bottleneck in Japan's parts shortage, aims to restore pre-earthquake output levels by October, with the first chips shipping to customers in August.... Read More »

Bosch may resume full output in Japan by September

German auto supplier Robert Bosch GmbH expects to resume full production in Japan by September, said Peter Marks, head of the company's North American unit. Output has fallen less than 50 percent after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, Marks said, declining to be more specific.... Read More »

Honda to shuffle North American production schedules

Honda Motor Co. said it will readjust production schedules at its North American assembly, transmission and engine plants for two days each week from May 9 through July 1. The automaker will run the same number of hours and produce the same number of vehicles as it has since late March, said Honda spokesman Ed Miller.... Read More »

Honda warns dealers of more model shortages, delays redesigned CR-V

Honda today warned dealers of more vehicle shortages and said it would delay the fall launch of the redesigned CR-V crossover. The automaker told dealers in a memo today that it fill March and April orders for Japan-built vehicles with May and June production. After that, the supply of vehicles from Japan will be restricted.... Read More »

Mazda sees 70-80% utilization of Japan plants in May-June

Mazda Motor Corp. booked a 5.2 billion yen ($62.8 million) charge in the latest quarter to cover earthquake damage and said it could take until the end of the year to reach prequake production levels. CEO Takashi Yamanouchi said the utilization rate of Mazda's plants in Japan will range from 70 percent to 80 percent in May and June.... Read More »

Honda's quarterly profit plunges 38% on earthquake, lower demand

Honda Motor Co. reported a quarterly profit that missed analysts' estimates, after Japan vehicle sales dropped and last month's record earthquake disrupted output. The automaker said net income plunged 38 percent to 44.5 billion yen ($545 million) for the fiscal fourth quarter that ended March 31, lower than the 93.... Read More »

Denso's annual profit nearly doubles; supplier postpones forecast

Denso Corp., bolstered by rebounding automaker production in Asia and North America, closed its fiscal year that ended March 31 with net income of 143 billion yen ($1.7 billion), up 95 percent from a year earlier. Sales for the world's largest auto parts supplier rose 5 percent to $37.7 billion.... Read More »

Denso to lend plant to quake-damaged Fujikura Rubber

Denso Corp. will lend a factory to a maker of rubber auto parts to temporarily replace a plant damaged by the March 12 earthquake, the Japanese parts supplier said today. Denso, a member of the Toyota Group, is the world's largest parts supplier. Toyota Motor Corp.... Read More »

Lithia, Sonic, Asbury brace for new-model shortages, target used vehicles

Three of the nation's largest auto retailers, Lithia Motors Inc., Sonic Automotive Inc. and Asbury Automotive Group Inc., are bracing for new-vehicle shortages stemming from the earthquake in Japan by stocking up on used vehicles.... Read More »

Back in the black: Ford solves Japanese paint problem

Ford said today it has found nonmetallic black and metallic red paints to replace colors that were not available after the March 11 Japan earthquake. Production of red and black nonmetallic paints will resume beginning in June, the automaker said today.... Read More »

Toyota Financial offers aid to dealers as car supplies dwindle

Toyota is supporting U.S. dealers by launching an array of incentives and financial aid to combat thinning vehicle inventories due to Japan's earthquake. “These incentives are there to help dealers maintain their profitability,” said Toyota Financial Services spokesman Justin Leach.... Read More »

Toyota will stick with current suppliers, manufacturing boss says

Toyota has little interest in finding alternative sources for parts that are in short supply after the earthquake in Japan, the company's chief manufacturing executive said today.... Read More »

Honda expects Japan output to return to normal by year end

Honda said today that it expects Japanese production to return to normal levels before year end following supply-chain disruptions caused by the country's March 11 earthquake.... Read More »

Ford watches C segment for signs of shortages caused by quake

Ford Motor Co.’s Jim Farley expects no major impact on his company’s U.S. operations from the earthquake in Japan, but he warned that it’s too early to judge the full effect because expected vehicle shortages have yet to occur.... Read More »

After earthquake, vehicle options will be limited

As earthquake-damaged Japanese automakers and suppliers struggle to increase production, executives say the industry faces a fitful ramp-up that will limit consumer choices for months. Scattered shortages, such as certain paint pigments, already are doing that.... Read More »

Lexus: Quake will end luxury sales leadership

Lexus' chief says looming earthquake-related inventory shortages almost certainly will end the brand's decade-long run as the top-selling luxury brand in the United States. Lexus dealers will begin to feel shortages of cars this week, and definitely in May, as a result of the March 11 Japan earthquake.... Read More »

Toyota sees at least 6 months before normal production

Toyota Motor Corp. says it will take at least until November for production to return to normal – overseas and at home – but that factory suspensions have bottomed out and output will start rebounding this summer.... Read More »

Renesas brings forward recovery of auto microchip production

Renesas Electronics Corp., the world's biggest maker of automotive microcontrollers and a key bottleneck in Japan's parts shortage, has bumped up the restart date for its last non-operational chip plant damaged in last month's earthquake.... Read More »

Toyota says quake may drag down market volume in China

Total auto sales in China may fall short of forecasts because carmakers -- facing parts shortages and production slowdowns after last month's Japan earthquake -- won't be able to meet demand, a top Toyota official warned.... Read More »

Toyota slashes North American production through May

Toyota will slash the production schedule at its North American manufacturing plants through June 3 in the wake of continued parts shortages stemming from the March 11 earthquake in Japan. Originally, Toyota had placed its North American plants on three-days-a-week schedules through April 25.... Read More »

Mitsubishi warns of possible U.S. production cuts

Mitsubishi, one of the few Japanese automakers yet to suspend U.S. output following the earthquake in Japan, may halt production at its only U.S. assembly plant for up to 10 days because of parts shortages from Japan, the company's president warned.... Read More »

Mazda targets thousands of at-risk parts

Mazda - scrambling to recover from last month's earthquake - has identified thousands of auto parts at risk of shortage and is working to either obtain them from alternative suppliers or change their specifications.... Read More »

Nissan said to restrain orders, delay convertible after quake

Nissan North America will restrict orders for some new cars and delay the debut of a convertible as the automaker battles disruptions stemming from last month's earthquake in Japan, said two people familiar with the plan. The curbs include a limit on vehicle orders in certain colors because of pigment shortages.... Read More »

Massive cuts for Toyota, Nissan

As inventories of Japanese products continue to dry up, Toyota Motor Corp. and Nissan Motor Co. have warned U.S. dealers: Full deliveries from Japan likely won't arrive until July at the earliest, and perhaps as late as September.... Read More »

Toyota plans further investments in quake-ravaged Miyagi region

Toyota, the automaker most affected by Japan's record earthquake, is planning to build a new engine plant in the nation's devastated Miyagi prefecture and will transfer a subsidiary's production operations to the region.... Read More »

The quake zone: Scars, frenzy

Wave-blasted houses filled with sand. Fishing trawlers tossed aground like toys. Second-story watermarks on buildings flushed clean by the deadly tsunami. In the industrial city of Iwaki, about four hours northeast of Tokyo, the harbor district still bears the scars of last month's devastating earthquake-tsunami double punch.... Read More »

Toyota's molten metal turned lump shows post-quake challenge

Powers cuts following Japan's devastating earthquake and tsunami are hitting suppliers such as Iwaki Diecast Co. Carmakers are worried about the possibility of blackouts or limits to production lasting through the summer.... Read More »

Honda extends N.A. production curbs through May 6

Honda Motor Co. has extended reductions of vehicle output at its U.S. and Canadian plants through May 6. The automaker had previously said it would reduce vehicle output through April 22. Decisions have been made on a plant-by-plant basis on how much to cut back production in order to conserve parts.... Read More »

Hyundai, Kia run U.S. plants overtime as Toyota pares output

Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp., South Korea's biggest carmakers, are running full shifts at their U.S. plants with overtime, unscathed by parts shortages that are curbing local output for Japan-based competitors.... Read More »

Chip supplier Renesas seeks to speed reopening of quake-damaged plant

Renesas Electronics Corp., the world's biggest maker of automotive microcontrollers and a key bottleneck in Japan's parts shortage, is trying to reopen its quake-damaged plant in Japan sooner than its earlier target date of July.... Read More »

Key automotive chip maker won’t reopen quake-hit factory in Japan

Freescale Semiconductor Inc., the world’s second-biggest maker of automotive computer chips, has decided not to reopen its only plant in Japan because of earthquake damage and is racing to alleviate a shortage of chips by adding capacity at other factories.... Read More »

Subaru cancels 3 more days of production in Indiana

Subaru of Indiana Automotive Inc. has canceled production at its Lafayette, Ind., plant for three days in April. Meanwhile, Toyota announced it would suspend production at five European plants on April 21, 25-29 and May 2.... Read More »

Ford shutting down Philippines assembly plant for 18 days

Ford Motor Co. is shutting its factory in the Philippines for 18 days as a precautionary move to ensure parts availability following the March 11 earthquake in Japan. The plant produces the Escape sport-utility vehicle, Focus sedan and two Mazda models.... Read More »

Triage the Toyota Way

The earthquake's dust was still settling when Toyota's purchasing unit switched into crisis mode. And suddenly suppliers found themselves barraged with uncomfortable questions.... Read More »

Japan loses half-million units in month since quake

Production of more than a half million vehicles has been wiped out in Japan since the March 11 earthquake paralyzed the county's manufacturing sector. Japan's big seven automakers lost 516,000 units of output as Japan marked the one month anniversary of the devastating March 11 quake.... Read More »

After quake, Toyota finds switching suppliers is huge task

Toyota Motor Corp. is finding that switching sub-suppliers after the earthquake is daunting. Doing so often requires Tier 1 makers to submit process-change requests or design change requests to carmakers that can take up to several weeks for approval in complicated cases.... Read More »

Toyota is unsure about May-July production, inventory

Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. cannot guarantee that its dealers will have adequate inventories of cars from May through July and perhaps beyond that. In a letter to dealers sent April 10, Toyota Division General Manager Bob Carter said, “Today we have good levels of inventory, but inventory will be getting tighter.... Read More »

Triage the Toyota way

The earthquake's dust was still settling when Toyota's purchasing unit switched into crisis mode. And suddenly suppliers found themselves barraged with uncomfortable questions. No detail was too small for the world's biggest car company. Toyota wanted lists of components made by each subsupplier.... Read More »

The big threat: Chip shortage

The world's largest maker of automotive microcontrollers -- the electronic brains that control millions of vehicles built by major automakers -- is shifting production from a key crippled plant to two other plants, but it will take months before shipments can start. The move by Renesas Electronics Corp.... Read More »

Dealers will start to feel inventory pinch this month

Lean inventories will begin to hamper U.S. auto sales this month, a situation that will worsen as global production slows as a result of Japan's earthquake and tsunami. Automakers started the month with a 54-day supply of light vehicles, down from 60 days on March 1.... Read More »

Amid the ruins, Honda r&d team forges ahead

When the floors and walls began to shudder and groan, the hundreds of engineers at Honda's global r&d center in Japan instinctively dove under their desks. Seconds later, the ceiling started crashing down on them as the monster 9.0-magnitude earthquake hammered the tech center, located an hour's train ride north of Tokyo.... Read More »

Suppliers prepare for a hit, search for Plan B

North American suppliers -- even those that appear to have little exposure to Japan's automakers or suppliers -- are poring over contingency plans and preparing to take a hit. ZF Group North America, a German axle supplier to Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Ford Motor Co. in the United States, has drawn up contingency plans to halt U.S.... Read More »

Ahead: Months of tight supply

After weeks of anticipation, the industry is taking concrete steps to cope as the impact of the Japan quake hits North American shores. Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. have curtailed production in North America. General Motors has sent experts to Japan to work with troubled suppliers.... Read More »

Key supplier to shift chip production from damaged plant

Renesas Electronics Corp., the world's biggest maker of automotive microcontrollers and a key bottleneck in Japan's parts shortage, plans to shift production of the chips from its last non-operational plant to undamaged factories in western Japan and Singapore.... Read More »

Toyota to resume output at all Japan plants April 18

Toyota will resume output at all of its factories in Japan on April 18 after halting production following the nation's record earthquake last month. Toyota will reopen production at 50 percent of full operating capacity and continue manufacturing through April 27, said Paul Nolasco, a spokesman for the Toyota City, Japan-based carmaker.... Read More »

Quake-damaged Merck pigment factory to restart in June

Merck KGaA, the paint pigment maker whose lost production prompted some automakers to stop taking orders for certain color vehicles, is repairing its earthquake-damaged plant in Japan and expects to resume production around June 1. Merck started repairs Monday, spokeswoman Phyllis Carter said by phone from Germany.... Read More »

Honda's Mendel: Parts shortages could hamper U.S. plants for 3 months

Honda's North American plants will likely be operating at sharply reduced output for as long as three months as the auto industry struggles to rebuild supply lines following the earthquake in Japan, the automaker's top U.S. sales executive warned. John Mendel, American Honda Motor Co.... Read More »

Toyota cancels overtime at UK plants on Japan parts shortage

Toyota has canceled planned overtime work at its car assembly and engine plants in the UK as automakers increasingly face shortages of parts supplied from Japan. Toyota's production disruption comes after Honda said it will cut production at its UK factory by 50 percent.... Read More »

GM sets up quake task force; Girsky sent to Japan

General Motors Co. has set up a task force to deal with the Japan earthquake aftermath and dispatched Vice Chairman Steve Girsky to Japan this week to assess the condition of the company's supply chain. Girsky visited with suppliers during his two-day trip, said Johan Willems, a GM spokesman.... Read More »

Toyota to reopen another plant in Japan next week

Toyota Motor Corp. said today it will reopen a third plant in Japan on April 11 to resume limited production of the Corolla small car as it creeps back to recovery from last month's earthquake.... Read More »

Tornado damages supplier Toyoda Gosei's Kentucky sealing plant

A tornado damaged the Toyoda Gosei automotive sealing plant in Hopkinsville, Ky., on Monday -- creating new gaps in an already threatened U.S. supply chain. The tornado caused significant damage to the building in the finished goods area and power was lost, Toyoda Gosei Co. spokesman John Wells confirmed.... Read More »

Suzuki patriarch grooms successors with 4-member executive team

Suzuki Motor Corp. patriarch Osamu Suzuki is conceding that, at age 81, he’s not quite the uber-executive he used to be. As part of an executive shake-up effective April 1, Suzuki -- who holds the titles of chairman, CEO and COO -- appointed a four-person board to shoulder some of the management burden.... Read More »

Subaru to resume output on a limited basis

Subaru will start making cars again Wednesday for the first time since output was shut down by last month's Japan earthquake, as the brand steps toward recovery. The move restarts a trickle of some of the best-selling Japanese imports to the United States, such as the Subaru Forester SUV and Impreza.... Read More »

Ford to close Kentucky plant for a week

Ford Motor Co. said it will idle its Louisville, Ky., truck plant for a week starting Monday, April 4. It is the Detroit automaker's first U.S. plant shutdown since the March 11 earthquake in Japan and resulting supply chain disruptions. Ford builds the F-series Super Duty (F-250 through F-550), Expedition and Lincoln Navigator at the plant.... Read More »

Nissan to idle U.S. plants for 6 days amid parts shortages

Nissan North America Inc. will close its U.S. vehicle and engine plants for six days this month and its Mexican plants for five as it battles parts shortages stemming from the Japan earthquake. Nissan did not say how many vehicles it expects to lose from April production as a result of the shutdowns.... Read More »

Toyota profit to be reduced by earthquake, president says

Toyota expects earnings will be reduced by the disruptions following Japan's record earthquake and tsunami on March 11, President Akio Toyoda said. The impact is difficult to estimate, Toyoda added. The world's biggest automaker is planning to resume all operations as soon as possible, he told reporters.... Read More »

Honda targets mid-April factory startup as carmakers inch toward recovery

Honda said it will resume limited domestic vehicle assembly in Japan on April 11, after having its plants offline for four-straight weeks, as some of the country's automakers inched toward recovery following Japan's devastating earthquake.... Read More »