Shiotsu Autotrade Japan – President’s Blog

Japanese Automakers Test Cars for Nuclear Radiation

Auto production in Japan has been affected due to the 11March tsunami and quake.  Production of vehicles by Japanese car makers Honda and Toyota is now running at half of their total production capacity.  The automotive industry in Japan was struck by spare parts shortage.  Apart from reduction in car production level and shortage of auto spare parts, the other reason is the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. A fear of nuclear radiation is affecting the export of many products from Japan.

According to the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, there is no report regarding Japanese cars contaminated with nuclear radiation being exported to other countries.  Though other countries have imposed restrictions on imports of processed foods, dairy and agricultural products from Japan, there is no such restriction being imposed on importing cars from Japan.  As per JAMA (Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association ) which represent 14 major Japanese truck, car and motorcycle makers, the radiation levels around Japanese car production sites and ports does not pose any danger that will affect human health.

Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association has given full assurance regarding the safety of all automobiles manufactured in Japan.  But at the same time, JAMA is aware the need for customers faith in such safety.  To make it more clear whether the cars are safe or not, Japan announced that it would monitor the radiation levels of exported cars.  JAMA has announced the operation of radiation level checking will be supported by all the concerned car makers who sell their cars – in Japan and globally.  According to JAMA, the Japanese auto makers have now started testing their vehicles for radiation before its shipments to overseas as well as to domestic markets.

As per JAMA, the test will be conducted by an external authority having specialization in the field, and the radiation test results will indicate whether the cars are affected by radiation that can be harmful to human health.  In the actual tests performed so far, the radiation levels are much lower than the upper limit suggested by the International Atomic Energy Agency.  JAMA further confirms that the test results are within the range designated by the Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan and which is not at all harmful to human health.

It requires just ten minutes for the inspectors to conduct this radiation test. The automakers will inspect radiation on tires as well as inside cars before shipment. A report is generated within an hour along with a photo.  Since April, the Fukushima prefecture government has provided free radiation tests for local auto makers.

The largest auto exporter, Toyota announced similar measures about radiation test for their vehicles.  Nissan has taken necessary steps of conducting radiation inspections.  The automobile division of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry confirms that it have not received any reports from other countries that have imported vehicles from Japan.  But yet official certification is not given by the Central Government that will help the Japanese car exporters.

So, to conclude you should not have unnecessary fear of importing cars from Japan. Japanese government is already taking the necessary steps to make sure that all the vehicles that are exported from Japan will meet stringent tests for checking radiation levels.

Technorati Tags: Japanese cars, Japan

Japan Earthquake Affects Toyota Production Drastically

Toyota Motor Corp is the world’s major manufacturer of trucks and cars by unit shipment. However this year a decline is expected in production by Toyota. It is already decreased to 63% in March. How this drastic change has occurred in Toyota’s production?

All most whole Japanese auto industry has affected by tsunami and earthquake in Japan. All major Japanese car makers like Nissan, Mitsubishi and Honda are facing the impact of this disaster. And the same has mainly affected the shipping ability of Toyota. To some extend nuclear radiation disaster has also affected Toyota’s production. The fall in supply of vehicles is forcing all Japanese auto manufacturers to significantly cut output in Japan. All these changes are also affecting the auto production outside Japan. Currently the production plans of Japanese auto industry for domestic and overseas output has come down to fifty percent.

How it has affected on production by Toyota? As per the company press release, the production of cars, trucks and buses in the month of March is 129,491. Toyota’s production has decreased to 62 % as compared to their production in March 2010. Their sale in March was 115,196 vehicles which shows a 45% decrease in sales and they have exported 107,751 vehicles which again show a decrease of 33 %. Toyota’s outside Japan production was 413,000 vehicles which are down just by 3 %.Their global production of 542,465 vehicles shows a decrease of 29.9 %.

As per Standard & Poor’s recent survey report, six Japanese automakers and parts suppliers which include Toyota Industries Corp., Denso Corp. and Aisin Seiki Co. Ltd. has received a warning about what could be the negative possibilities in production they have to face in near future. As per this survey the decrease in production will definitely hurt the international ability of Japanese auto makers. This survey further says that huge pressure on the supply chain of Japanese vehicles could further create complications in obtaining loans and even in selling bonds at favorable rates which they have enjoyed previously. Electronics facilities operating in Japan have been spared. However, getting pre-earthquake level of power supply is right now difficult. This will definitely affect the efforts of restarting automobile manufacturing plants. And again disturbed transportation facilities will also affect in regularizing business activities.

If Japanese automakers, auto parts suppliers and electronics components vendors are affected so much, what is the condition of other high-tech segment’s supply chain? Most of the electronic companies claim that they are not affected by the earthquake and tsunami. Even the companies which receives raw material from Japanese vendors do not have proper information as to what extend those vendors are affected.

Few companies like Apple Inc. and Freescale Semiconductor Inc. have admitted that they have affected by earthquake and tsunami and they expect future disruptions. But it is just unbelievable what corporate releases say that no one from high-tech sector has been affected by this natural disaster. Electronics facilities operating in Japan have been spared. However, getting pre-earthquake level of power supply is right now difficult. This will definitely affect the efforts of restarting automobile manufacturing plants. And again disturbed transportation facilities will also affect in regularizing business activities.

Technorati Tags: Japan, Japanese car, Japanese vehicles

You’d be amazed to see the changing trend in the prices of cars worldwide in general. Used cars which were available at affordable prices have become costlier in recent months.  Never before have had people paid so much for a used car as they are paying now.  This is mainly due to the shortage in production of new cars in Japan.  As you are aware many countries around the globe, including the United States and Europe import cars and car parts from Japan. As the supply of cars and car parts from Japan has greatly reduced the demand for used cars in these countries have greatly increased, thus increasing the price of used cars.

The shortage in car production in Japan can be mainly attributed to the devastating earthquake and the furious tsunami.  These two natural calamities have hit the suppliers of auto parts in Japan very badly.   Giant automakers like Nissan and Toyota have been badly hit due to the lack of supply of auto parts.  Both these auto giants are producing only at half their capacity and have predicted that they would be able to resume full production only by the middle of June.

The shortage of auto parts has not only hit Nissan and Toyota, but it has also affected the other car producing companies in Japan as well as other parts of the world.  Although, the other car producing companies are looking for alternative sources to procure the auto parts, many feel that the full production of cars would start only by end of August.  This shortage in auto parts has caused Toyota a huge loss to the tune of 360,000 units.  And this is the loss expected just in the first week of June.  Experts predict that this figure is expected to go up as the time goes by.

Nissan which was expected to deliver as much as forty thousand units to United States in March 2011, would be able to deliver only 7500 vehicles to United States.  All the other car producing companies of Japan are also expected to fall short of their respective targets due to scarcity of auto parts.  The problem of shortage in car parts is faced not only by car companies in Japan, but the scarcity in auto parts is also faced by all the car companies around the world.

Toyota, which has its car factories at Deeside and Burnaston in United Kingdom, has stopped production in these plants for a period of two weeks.  All the giant Japanese automakers are slowing down their production in U.K. Nissan at its factory in Sunderland has scheduled downtime for a period of three days.  The Honda factory at Swindon has cut down its production to half for the past two weeks.  Even the car companies in Europe and United States have been greatly affected as they rely a lot on Japan for auto parts.

Some of the best cars in demand like Toyota Prius and Honda Fit are produced only in Japan, and now with scarcity of auto parts, the production of these cars looks bleak.  Even cars adorning certain colors are made only in Japan and even their production has stopped.

Now, because of the shortage of new cars, the demand for used cars has greatly gone up.  Cars that are about two years old are in great demand and the car dealers have already begun to stock them up.  Now the sale of huge amount of used cars has greatly led to the shortage of used cars thereby increasing their prices steeply.  The prices of Compact cars are expected to rise by a good 1,000 dollars.  And the same types of cars which are more than three years old are expected to rise by around 650 dollars.  Many auto industry experts feel that the prices have reached their maximum level and now the difference in price between a new and a used car is fairly less.

To sum up, used car prices are going up worldwide as a result of devastation caused by the recent earthquake and tsunami.  It is still possible to get high quality used Japanese cars from Japanese used car auctions.