Toyota and Nissan suspended operations at factories in northern Japan after a level 7.4 Earthquake occurred off the coast of Fukushima on the evening of March 16, foreign media reported. In addition, factories at Renesas, Toyota's supplier of Denso and car chip makers, have also been affected, posing new challenges for the auto industry, which is already under supply pressure.
Toyota's plants in (Iwate), Iwate Prefecture and (Miyagi), Miyagi Prefecture are still suspended on March 17 and the company has not yet decided whether to resume production later in the day, Toyota spokesman Shiori Hashimoto said in an emailed statement. Toyota said that although there was some damage at the factory, it had not received any reports of employee injuries. The compact model Yaris is one of the models produced by the above-mentioned factories.
Denso also said on March 17 that some equipment at its Fukushima plant had been damaged and was assessing the impact of Earthquake on production. Toyota's engine plant in Miyagi prefecture also stopped production, but the plant is expected to resume production on March 17 after safety checks.
Nissan also suspended production at its plant in Iwaki, Fukushima. However, Nissan spokesman Azusa Momose said the plant had planned to suspend production on March 17 and March 18 as part of its employee vaccination program. Momose said all Nissan employees had been safely evacuated and there were no reports of damage or injuries affecting production.
Renesas also said on March 17 that production at three of its factories in Japan had also been suspended because of Earthquake. The three factories, NAKA, Takasaki and Mizawa, are all near the Earthquake disaster area. In this Earthquake, the two factories lost power overnight, but the power supply has now been restored. As of press time, Renesas has not yet decided on the resumption of production at the NAKA and Takasaki plants, while some of the test lines at the Mize plant have resumed partial production.
The company is currently evaluating the impact of Earthquake on equipment and products, as well as the safety of the facility and clean room (clean rooms) conditions. In the event of a power outage, the factory equipment shuts down automatically. A spokesman for Renesas said that even if there was no damage, it would take several days to fully restart the facilities. Currently, one of Renesas's employees has been slightly injured.
Renesas's Naka and Mize plants make micro-controllers for automobiles and industries, while Takasaki plants produce PMOS chips for converting AC / DC currents. Therefore, if the production of the three plants faces prolonged disruption, it may have another impact on the automobile industry, which has been affected by the shortage of semiconductors. In March last year, a fire broke out at the Renesas Naka plant, destroying 11 machines, accounting for 2 per cent of the plant's production equipment.
According to Japanese television, including disaster investigators, Japan has received reports of 4 deaths and 97 injuries. Within the jurisdiction of Tokyo Electric Power, about 2.08 million households have experienced power outages, but all of them have been resumed. at most, 148000 households have experienced power outages within the jurisdiction of Northeast Electric Power. At present, 38500 households are still in a state of power outage.
