The recent violent earthquake that struck Japan on the 11th of March 2011 had caused major disruptions to the automobile industry all over the world. Worldwide Japanese new and used cars for sale have been delayed due to the disaster, and among the major auto manufacturers most affected by the earthquake disaster in Japan include Nissan, Honda, Toyota, and Chrysler. While the disaster disrupts the production of Nissan, Honda, and Toyota, it had forced Chrysler to an early summer shutdown, and the company is closing a few numbers of its auto plants. Not only are Japanese new and used cars for sale affected, several major manufacturers worldwide are forced to shut their company down.
Toyota had a brief shutdown after the violent disaster strikes, and the company had just recently restarted its productions in Japan at the company’s assembly plants. The assembly plants are responsible and are in charge for the production of torque converters, brakes, wheels, and transmissions, among many other components. Though the company’s assembly plants have reopen; its subsidiary operations within the prefectures that are the most heavily affected by the violent disaster are not online. Fortunately, there are no employees injured at Toyota’s corporate offices.
Within the first few weeks after the earthquake strikes, Nissan announced that they’re closing the company’s global headquarters in Yokohama and had suspended their production at various operations. Nissan remained closed throughout the whole weekend and it was also reported that several employees of the company had minor injuries at the Nissan’s Toguchi plant. Nissan’s suspended production lasted until 13th March. Meanwhile, Honda had four of its plants closed temporarily, including the company’s development facility and primary research in Toguchi. Among the Honda’s plants with disrupted production include the Saitama factory (the Accord and the CR-V are made here) and the Suzuka plant.
The Japanese manufacturers are not the only ones who had to shut down temporarily. Automobile companies as far as America had also been forced to an early shut down. Chrysler’s affected facilities had contributed to its early shutdown, and the facilities affected include Chrysler’s north assembly plant in Toledo, Ohio, and the truck plant in Warren, Michigan. Due to the unannounced disaster in Japan, Chrysler will be adding 1,000 new jobs in the United States to accommodate additional production. Majority of the jobs will be in engineering and technical positions. Because of the earthquake disaster in Japan, more employees and manpower are needed in the automobile industry, creating more job opportunities for all people throughout the world.