Toyota US Operations Not Affected by Japan Quake

Almost a week after the devastation that struck the northeastern coast of Japan gave another devastating blow to the operations of auto maker Toyota, the company finally managed to come up with a report that sheds a bit of light on how its operations in the US have been affected.

On Wednesday, Toyota announced that all its Japanese auto manufacturing plants will remain closed until the second day of next week, with only parts production to be resumed this week. Regardless, the US operations are safe, for now.

According to Toyota, since most of the parts used in the vehicles manufactured in North America are produced by local suppliers, this week’s production gap has not affected the supply chain.

At a higher level, the dealership inventories in the country are enough to keep sales going until the production is expected to resume in Japan. Most of the models sold in the US (12 of them, including Camry, Corolla, RAV4, and Lexus RX 35) are manufactured locally as well.

Some problems, says the Japanese auto maker, might arise in the shipment and deliveries of the Prius, which is produced for the US in Japan. For now, however, the inventory of Prii models in the US are enough to sustain the demand.

“Regarding Toyota's North American operations, so far the impact is limited. All 13 North American vehicle and engine plants are running normally, although overtime has been curtailed for now to assure we maintain adequate inventories of parts that come from Japan,” said Toyota. “The company is making every effort to minimize any long-term impact on Prius availability.”