Toyota, Sony disruptions may last weeks

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TOKYO, Mar 19 (Bloomberg): Toyota Motor Corporation and Sony Corp., two of Japan's biggest manufacturers, are facing worst-case scenarios of long-term production shortfalls as scores of plants remain closed and workers are idled in the aftermath of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. "The current situation is still difficult," Chisato Kitsukawa, a spokesman for Tokyo-based Sony, by phone today. The company has shut eight plants in Miyagi, Ibaraki and Fukushima prefectures, and workers are inspecting equipment and facilities, he said. Toyota has said it will keep 21 auto and components plants closed until March 22. Sony and Toyota's efforts to resume production are complicated by the need for hundreds of different components to build TVs and cars from a variety of different suppliers that may have suffered plant damage in the quake and tsunami. Japan is also facing electricity shortages because a nuclear-power plant was crippled by the temblor. "This will be played out not in days, but in weeks," said John Hoffecker, head of the automotive practice at consulting firm AlixPartners LLP in Detroit. "Nothing on this scale has really occurred before." The earthquake and tsunami killed more than 7,000 people and damaged or destroyed more than 100,000 buildings in the Tohoku region of northeastern Japan, according to the National Police Agency of Japan. Workers are also battling to prevent a nuclear meltdown at a plant north of Tokyo. Sony and Toyota, based in Toyota City, Japan, have both fallen 12 per cent in Tokyo trading since March 10, the last day of trading before the quake. The Topix Index has dropped 11 per cent. Keisuke Kirimoto, a Toyota spokesman, did not immediately reply to message left on his cellphone today. For Sony, the most significant damage is to its Tagajyo plant, in Miyagi prefecture, that produces coating materials for magnetic tapes, touch-panel mobile devices and Blu-ray discs. Short-term recovery is "very difficult due to flooding caused by the tsunami," Sony has said. The electronics company and its suppliers probably have at least two weeks of inventory on hand, which offsets disruptions, said Jordan Selburn, principal analyst for consumer electronics at IHS iSuppli Corp. The more likely challenges are a shortage of basic components and power supplies, he said. "Some of the less glamorous parts that they need to build their own stuff may be lost to them," he said. "That's the nail keeping the horse, for want of a shoe, from joining the battle and that leads to losing the kingdom." Toyota's shutdown affects about 95,000 units of production, of which 60 per cent is for shipment to markets, including the US, Steve Curtis, a spokesman for the carmaker's sales unit in Torrance, California, said March 17. US inventory levels remain "normal," he said then. Shipments of parts including chemicals, plastics, steel and other metals, precision ball bearings and electronic components may be disrupted for weeks, Hoffecker said. General Motors Co. (GM), the largest US automaker, will suspend car production at plants in Spain and Germany next week because of a lack of Japanese-made parts. "An automobile has 5,000 parts," said Maryann Keller, an analyst and principal of a self-titled consulting firm in Stamford, Connecticut. "It has to be produced with every single one of them." Nissan Motor Co., Japan's second-largest carmaker, has suspended operations at six plants, the Yokohama-based company said Friday. The company has more than 1,500 Leaf electric vehicles either in transit from Japan or at ports in the US, the Franklin, Tennessee-based Nissan Americas said in a statement. Nissan Americas' manufacturing operations will follow a normal production schedule until at least March 25. Honda Motor Co. has closed six factories, including three car factories and one motorcycle assembly plant that will be shut until March 23, the company said in a statement. The automaker, which builds more than 80 per cent of its vehicles for the US market in North American plants, also suspended orders from US dealers for Japan-built models. Honda told US Honda and Acura dealers, who typically order vehicles six weeks in advance, of the plan March 17 in a memo, Christina Ra and Gary Robinson, US representatives for the Tokyo-based company, said. Panasonic Corp., the nation's biggest maker of batteries, has closed two plants in the area hit by the quake. It didn't have an estimate for when production would resume, Akira Kadota, a spokesman, said by phone. Fujitsu Ltd., the maker of personal computers and home appliances, has closed 10 plants and it isn't able to say when they will reopen, said Etsuro Yamada, a spokesman. Camera-maker Nikon Corp. is yet to decide when it will reopen four plants shut since the quake.