Hitachi Parts Shortage Idles Nissan US

Problems with the shipping process which prevented Japanese supplier Hitachi from sending integrated circuits for engine control units to the US has made Japanese manufacturer Nissan halt production at two US plants, the one in Smyrna, Tennessee and the one in Canton, Mississippi.

The new freeze in production comes after Nissan already stopped work at some of its Japanese plants for three days starting Wednesday. There will be however no stop in production at Nissan's Mexican facilities.

"We have a production halt on July 15, 16 and 19 at two US plants," Nissan spokesman Mitsuru Yonekawa told AFP. "We expect to resume production on July 20."

According to Autonews, Nissan is losing 15,000 units from the production freeze. The Smyrna facility manufactures Frontier, Altima, Maxima, Pathfinder and Xterra (around 500,000 units each year), while the Canton plant builds 400,000 Altima, Quest, Armada and Titan models, Nissan spokesman Toshitake Inoshita told the source.

Hitachi said it will resume deliveries of parts next week. Apparently, the problems are caused by a supplier to Hitachi, who hasn't been able to deliver custom integrated circuit. The culprit supplier has not been named.

Separately, American manufacturer Ford announced yesterday the launch of the Fiesta model on the US market may be delayed as a result of shipping problems. With the northern part of Mexico crippled by hurricane Alex and tropical storm Bonnie and most of the rail network which links Mexico to the US damaged, Fiesta shipments to dealerships may be delayed by 10 days to two weeks.