Nissan to halt production at Japanese plant due to coronavirus

KUALA LUMPUR: Nissan has fallen short of auto parts due to coronavirus outbreak in China. As a result, the automaker has halted operations at a Kyushu facility in Japan for a temporary time period. Both the production lines of its Kyushu’s plant have been impacted, while the one will stop production from Friday, the other will do the same from Monday.

Nissan is highly dependent on the Chinese market for the supply of auto parts. Since China is facing virus threats at the moment, the Japanese automaker has been hit terribly hard by the supply chain disruption.

Nissan Kyushu facility produces vehicles like the Rogue Sport crossover and the Serena minivan, auto parts of whose come from China. The Rogue Sport crossover is one of the top-selling Nissan models in the USA and the company produced 434,000 vehicles in the fiscal year 2018.

According to a report by Nikkei, a Japanese publication house, the halt in operations will reduce production by 3,000 vehicles. Though a lot of companies in China have resumed working this Monday, the automotive industry is likely to take some extra time to return to normal.

The same report revealed that the Chinese automotive market accounts for 30 per cent of the total auto parts imports to Japan. Due to the virus scare, Nissan was forced to shut down some of its plants in China which are now expected to reopen in the coming week.

A spokesperson at Nissan said, "In full compliance with government directives and in view of the situation of the epidemic and our suppliers, we are preparing to restart production in China at the earliest from February 17 at Huadu Plant and Dalian Plant. Restart dates for other plants will differ by plant and we will update as necessary."

Aside from Nissan, automakers like Kia and Hyundai have also paused production at their respective South Korean facilities due to shortages. Isuzu is also considering alternate options. Fiat Chrysler, too, has issued a warning of a possible closure of European plants.

Coronavirus originated from the city of Wuhan has claimed more than 1,100 lives in China, with a total number of confirmed cases of 44,653, as of the time of publishing.

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