Toyota Motor Corp. has halted some of its vehicle plants because its procurement of automotive spring products was disrupted due to a fire at a supplier plant, officials said Tuesday.
As of Tuesday morning, 10 production lines at six domestic plants of the Toyota group were suspended due to the fire at Chuo Spring Co.’s Fujioka plant in the city of Toyota, Aichi Prefecture, central Japan.
Production of the Corolla and Prius models, as well as the Land Cruiser and RAV4 SUVs, is affected, the officials said. The Toyota group is slated to decide later in the day what to do with operations at each plant on Wednesday and later.
On Monday afternoon, wholly owned subsidiary Toyota Auto Body Co. began halting some production lines at its Yoshiwara plant in Toyota, Inabe plant in the Aichi neighbor of Mie Prefecture and Fujimatsu plant in Kariya, Aichi.
The parent company began suspending operations at its Takaoka and Tsutsumi plants, both in the city of Toyota, on Tuesday morning. Toyota Industries Corp. has also halted its Nagakusa plant in Obu, Aichi.
Last year, Toyota was forced to suspend all of its 14 domestic vehicle plants due to a cyberattack on Kojima Industries Corp., a Toyota supplier.
In August this year, Toyota temporarily halted the 14 plants due to a problem with its in-house system used to manage parts orders.
According to Chuo Spring, the fire began after an explosion at drying equipment at the Fujioka plant, which makes coil springs. The incident injured two workers and damaged the plant.
