New-car waiting lists could grow even longer after Japanese earthquake
One of the world’s biggest semiconductor producers is out of action and the impacts are yet to be feltAlready strained supplies of new vehicles in Australia could be in line to take yet another hit as one of the world’s biggest semi-conductor producers shuts down two of its three Japanese factories in the wake of Wednesday’s 7.4-magnitude earthquake.
According to a press release issued yesterday by Renesas, operations at its Naka and Takasaki plants have been “temporarily halted” while production has been scaled back exclusively to ‘test lines’ at its Yonezawa factory.
It’s uncertain how long the Naka and Takasaki plants will be out of action while damage assessments are being made around both the structural integrity of the factories as well as the equipment, raising questions over the extent of impact this will have on new-vehicle production.
The timing of the earthquake could hardly have been worse for the industry given the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and all of the resulting component shortages, not to mention the pre-existing semi-conductor shortage that’s been plaguing the industry for years now.
New-vehicle waiting times are already at their longest since WWII, say industry experts, at an average of between three and 12 months, putting significant pressure on the prices and availability of quality used cars.
Now,
, a leading automotive industry forecaster has cut more than 2.6 million units off its global production forecast for both 2022 and 2023, totalling more than five million lost units within the next two years just as a result of what’s going on in Ukraine and the semi-conductor crisis.
Even a quick production resumption at the earthquake-affected Renesas plants could have dire consequences for the industry and see those predictions rise even further, with Toyota announcing a 150,000-unit global production ‘adjustment’ on the day of the earthquake (before it struck) amidst “the parts shortage resulting from the spread of COVID-19”.
“We have positioned the three-month period from April to June as an ‘intentional pause’ and we will create plans based on the personnel structures and facility capacities of suppliers,” said Toyota.
“By doing this, we will establish healthy workplace environments that place the highest priority on safety and quality, rather than exceeding the capacities of facilities, pushing people to their limits, and making do through overtime work.
Australia’s market leader could well be in line to lose a lot more units than that as a result of the earthquake, adding even more pressure to its already strained supply chain.
Toyota and Nissan temporarily closed some of their plants in and around the areas majorly impacted by the earthquake, but all facilities were back online within 24 hours – once they were deemed safe.
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