Toyota, Nissan to restart Japan plants

Tokyo, April 9, 2011

Japanese carmakers Toyota and Nissan said they will restart all domestic assembly plants from around mid-April after production was halted due to the nation's biggest recorded earthquake.

In doing so they will join rival Honda in resuming production, although all three have warned output will be at 50 per cent of usual levels, said a report in our sister publication, the Gulf Daily News.

Honda said on March 31 that it planned to restart all plants by April 11.

All three companies will be producing vehicles by April 18.

Japan's leading car companies were forced to suspend production due to the impact of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, with crucial supply chains broken and power cuts prompting plants to be shuttered.

Toyota will start operating its assembly plants from the morning shift of April 18 until April 27, a company spokesman said.

Plants will then become idle for the Golden Week holiday season, as they do every year, through May 10, a spokeswoman said, adding that no decision had been made on the post-Golden Week schedule.

Rival Nissan said it would also resume production around the same time, beginning with the first plant on April 11. – TradeArabia News Service

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