Toyota, Nissan to Halt Plants As Quake Hits Parts Supplier

Tokyo, July 18 (Jiji Press)–Toyota Motor Corp. said Wednesday it will suspend operations at all of its 12 plants in Japan from late Thursday afternoon to early Saturday due to auto parts supply shortages caused by a strong earthquake on Monday. For the same reason, Nissan Motor Co. said it will close all of its domestic plants other than factories in the Kyushu southern Japan region on Friday.

Toyota and Nissan took the decisions after auto parts manufacturer Riken Corp. was forced to shut down its plant in Kashiwazaki, Niigata Prefecture, which was damaged by the earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 6.8 on the Richter scale.

Riken has a domestic market share of 50 pct for piston rings for automotive engines and 70 pct for seal rings for transmissions.

Toyota said it will decide what to do about production from Monday after watching the progress of restoration work at the Riken plant.

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. , Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. and Suzuki Motor Co. have also decided to suspend some of production lines.

If the Riken plant remains closed for an extended period, automobile and motorcycle production in Japan may be affected seriously.

At the Riken plant, some manufacturing equipment fell over and a warehouse was partially damaged.

Although the equipment will be returned to normal condition in a day or two, inspections and test-runs are expected to take several days. Therefore, it will be some time before the plant restarts operations, Riken officials said.END

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