TOKYO — Toyota Motor will halt production at 14 Japanese assembly lines for up to four days through Saturday, after a weekend earthquake in northeastern Japan disrupted operations at the automaker’s suppliers.
The suspension begins as early as Wednesday and affects half of Toyota’s 28 lines at nine factories nationwide, including subsidiaries such as Hino Motors. These lines are involved in producing a wide range of models, from the Harrier sport utility vehicle to the luxury Lexus brand.
Some parts makers for Toyota suffered damage from the 7.3-magnitude quake, which rocked Fukushima, Miyagi and other prefectures on Saturday. The automaker said its supply of semiconductors was unaffected.
Toyota did not disclose the number of vehicles likely to be affected. But based on its output from 2019, the company could suffer a decline of roughly 5,000 to 6,000 vehicles per day.
The company has yet to decide on restarting the 14 lines next week, and will base the decision on conditions at its suppliers.
Other big Japanese automakers have no plans to adjust output over the Saturday quake. Nissan Motor’s engine factory in Fukushima did not suffer damage. Mazda Motor also said it has no plans to reduce output due to damage at suppliers.
Honda Motor, Suzuki Motor, Mitsubishi Motors and Subaru plan to continue production as usual as well.
Many automakers were forced to halt production lines in Japan and abroad following the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, owing to the impact on Renesas Electronics, a key supplier of automotive chips. Toyota suspended all production in Japan and did not return to full capacity for roughly a month.
But the automaker says its chip supply is not a concern this time around. Renesas started resuming production in stages on Wednesday. Renesas said Tuesday it was resuming production in stages at its main Naka plant northeast of Tokyo, after confirming the condition of its clean room. The factory had been shut down as a precaution.
Shipments of completed products in inventory restarted on Monday. The chipmaker, a major supplier of automotive semiconductors, expects to return to pre-quake output levels within about a week.
Renesas had shifted some production that was previously outsourced to foundries like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. to the Naka plant in response to a global shortage of automotive chips.
The facility was also preparing to make auto semiconductors for an Asahi Kasei group company that was forced to halt production after a massive plant fire last October.
Saturday’s quake dealt far less of a blow to Renesas than the 2011 disaster, which heavily damaged the Naka factory and resulted in almost all partially finished products being discarded. It took Renesas three months just to resume production, and about 180 days to restore capacity.