Tornado takes out Benz production in Alabama

A tornado measuring a mile across (1.6km), has swept through Tuscaloosa in the US state of Alabama, damaging a Mercedes-Benz vehicle-building plant north of the city.

As reported by American publication Automotive News, the tornado struck on Wednesday and damage was directly incurred at the facility, which builds the Benz GL-, M- and R-Class (pictured) for world markets. In addition, local roads to the plant were made impassable and parts suppliers in the vicinity were also hit by the storm, hampering efforts to re-establish production at the Benz plant.

According to the report, production was halted on Wednesday and was not expected to resume as late as yesterday.

Power lines to a Toyota engine plant located in Huntsville Alabama were also torn down by the storm. As a  consequence, supply of V6 and V8 engines for the Sequoia SUV and the Tundra and Tacoma commercial vehicles was disrupted and is likely to remain down for the weekend, according to a Toyota spokesman quoted in the report.

For Toyota, it's bad luck piled on more bad luck, after company president Akio Toyoda announced just a week earlier that the company's global production would be halved during May, following the supply chain disruption caused by the earthquake east of Japan in March. That event created a tsunami that, along with the quake itself, wiped out parts manufacturing infrastructure in the north of the country.

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