“Production shall be continued on the shop floor,” Toyoda vowed. “Otherwise, we will cause troubles and inconvenience to our customers. So we shall never stop production activities.”
Now, however, Toyota will cut Japan output by 36,000 units through several days of shutdowns in April.
Mazda partly blamed the widespread consumer lockdowns for cutting production by 60,000 units, including reduced output in Mexico and Thailand. But Mazda said it will continue sales operations in Japan and China.
Some analysts expect more shutdowns to follow.
“I’m not surprised they are throttling down production,” said Christopher Richter, lead auto analyst at CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets in Tokyo. “If you have been merrily operating in the U.S. thinking you have 60 days of inventory, guess what? Come April 1, it’s going to be 80, then 120.”
But for the time being, many Asian automakers continued in business.
While Hyundai suspended operations in the U.S., Brazil, the Czech Republic and India, its plants in South Korea were still running last week. So were Kia’s.
Honda’s plants in Japan were operating close to normal last week, with some adjustment for supply chain crimps. Honda’s Japan factories are geared mostly toward feeding domestic demand, and Japanese dealers are still open for business, even though showroom traffic is clearly down.
Likewise, despite closing its U.S. assembly plant, Subaru’s Japanese Gumma factory continued operating almost normally with no major supply kinks.
Nissan Motor Co. was running Japan plants at a reduced pace but so far not implementing any wide-ranging suspensions. And Mitsubishi Motors Corp. was likewise keeping its Japan plants online, though Mitsubishi declined to say at what clip.
“We don’t have any employees testing positive for coronavirus — it’s as simple as that. Business continues,” a Mitsubishi spokesman said. At week’s end, Mitsubishi said it will halt a line that produces Japan-market micro cars.
