While the industrial consequences of last month's devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan still pales in comparison to the human suffering, there is nonetheless a global reverberation as Japanese factories battle to supply parts to overseas car plants.
This has seen many Japanese car companies having to scale down production in their factories abroad and Toyota South Africa has become the latest victim.
Following Toyota's earlier announcement that its Japanese production will proceed at about 50% of normal through the month of May, Toyota South Africa has stated that it will adjust its production accordingly.
Toyota SA CEO Dr. Johan van Zyl said: “Toyota SA will adjust its production schedule, taking into account the impact on the workforce and our dealer network. This adjustment might lead to some inconvenience for customers and we would like to apologise in advance for this.”
The adjustment of production volumes will not influence the duration of the planned Easter shut down. The scheduled 21 April to 4 May shut down was planned before the Great East Japan Earthquake and will be used for plant upgrades and maintenance.
Production will continue until the planned shut down and production will resume afterwards. Toyota SA will only make announcements with regards to adjusted volumes once it has been discussed with all stakeholders involved.
As for imported vehicles like the Yaris, Prius, Quantum and Land Cruisers, Toyota SA does still have some stock left, but the upcoming shipments of these models have been delayed so shortages are inevitable.
As with Toyota, the South African representatives for Nissan, Honda, Isuzu and Subaru are also currently assessing the supply situation, although no official announcements about shortages have been made as yet.