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<\/p>\nMAR 18 2022<\/p>\n
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DETROIT \u2013 A major earthquake this week in Japan is causing additional problems for the already constrained global automotive supply chain, which continues to manage through problems caused by the coronavirus pandemic and Russia\u2019s\u00a0ongoing invasion of Ukraine.<\/a><\/p>\n As companies monitor and assess potential residual impacts of Wednesday\u2019s 7.4 magnitude earthquake on their supply chains, auto companies most immediately impacted included\u00a0Toyota Motor<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Renesas Electronics<\/a>, a major supplier of semiconductor chips for the automotive industry.<\/p>\n Research firm LMC Automotive expects the earthquake to lead to lower vehicle production this year of between 25,000 and 35,000 cars and trucks, adding to already-decreased expectations due to an ongoing shortage of semiconductor chips and the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is just another layer on top of an already fragile system where we\u2019re seeing a lot of pressure on the manufacturing side of the business,\u201d said Jeff Schuster, LMC\u2019s president of the Americas.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s certainly something the industry didn\u2019t need at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n Toyota on Friday said it would suspend operations at more than half its plants across Japan. The world\u2019s largest automaker by volume said 18 production lines at 11 plants (out of 28 lines at 14 plants) would be down for three days next week due to supply problems caused by the earthquake.<\/p>\n \u201cDue to the parts shortage resulting from suppliers affected by the earthquakes, additional adjustments will be made to production operations in some plants in Japan as follows,\u201d Toyota said in a statement.<\/p>\n The shutdowns were announced a day after Toyota cut production output by 150,000 units from April to June due to growing supply chain uncertainty.<\/p>\n For more than a year now, the global automotive industry has been dealing with a global shortage of\u00a0semiconductor chips<\/a>\u00a0caused by plant shutdowns at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. The chips are the most notable issue amid global supply chain problems caused by the pandemic, rising costs, inflation and\u00a0Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThe top line for this is it\u2019s another impact on an already constrained system,\u201d said Stephanie Brinley, principal automotive analyst at S&P Global Mobility, formerly IHS Markit. \u201cIt does appear to be a short-term impact \u2026 but it\u2019s just not industry needs to deal with right now.\u201d<\/p>\n Renesas, which reportedly makes nearly a third of the microcontroller chips used in cars globally, operates three plants close to the earthquake\u2019s epicenter in northeast Japan, according to the company.<\/p>\n The Tokyo-based semiconductor supplier said it\u2019s attempting to restart the plants and return them to pre-earthquake production volumes by Wednesday, including one as early as Sunday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The importance of Renesas in the global automotive semiconductor supply chain was highlighted last year following a fire at one of the plants caused automakers such as\u00a0Ford Motor<\/a>\u00a0to significantly cut production at facilities, including many in North America.<\/p>\n Ford teams \u201chave been monitoring the situation very closely and actively working to determine what, if any, impact this might have on our operations,\u201d a company spokesperson said Friday.\u00a0General Motors<\/a>\u00a0released a similar statement.<\/p>\n Smaller Japanese automaker\u00a0Subaru<\/a>\u00a0on Friday said it would suspend production Friday and Monday at two auto assembly plants and an engine and transmission plant due to the earthquake.<\/p>\n \u201cSubaru Corporation will temporarily suspend production at its automobile manufacturing facilities due to interruptions in the supply of certain parts, as operations of the supplier factories for those parts have been affected by the earthquake,\u201d Subaru said in a statement.<\/p>\n Spokespeople for Japanese automakers\u00a0Honda Motor<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Nissan Motor<\/a>\u00a0said there were little to no impacts to their operations due to the earthquake. A Honda spokesperson said the company suspended a night shift at one Japanese plant when the earthquake occurred.<\/p>\n\n\n