Toyota Motor Corp and Nissan Motor Co halted operations at their plants in northern Japan after a magnitude 7.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Fukushima Prefecture late on Wednesday night.
Work at Toyota’s factories in Iwate and Miyagi prefectures remained suspended yesterday afternoon, spokeswoman Shiori Hashimoto said in an e-mailed statement.
Toyota’s popular Yaris compact car is among the vehicles made at the plants.
Nissan halted production at its factory in the city of Iwaki in Fukushima. The plant had already been scheduled to close yesterday and today as part of Nissan’s employee vaccination schedule, spokeswoman Azusa Momose said.
While there was some damage at Toyota’s plants, there have not been any reports of employee injuries, the company said.
Nissan said that all of its employees have been safely evacuated, and there was no damage affecting production or injuries reported at its Iwaki facility, Momose said.
Some equipment was damaged at Denso Corp’s Fukushima plant, a spokeswoman for the Toyota supplier said yesterday, adding that the company is assessing how production might be affected.
Toyota also halted its engine factory in Miyagi, although operations resumed late yesterday after safety checks, Hashimoto said.
Hitachi Astemo Ltd has temporarily halted operations at seven factories in northern Japan while inspections are carried out, a company spokesman said, adding that the auto parts maker cannot forecast when production might resume.
Separately, Japanese automotive chipmaker Renesas Electronics Corp yesterday said it temporarily halted production at two semiconductor plants and partially stopped output at a third following Wednesday’s earthquake.
Among them is its advanced Naka plant in Ibaraki Prefecture, which supplies chips to global auto companies that have had to to curb output because of chip shortages.
Renesas did not say when production would restart.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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