Several months have passed since the nuclear reactor disaster in Japan occurred, but auto makers are still having trouble exporting cars. Some suppliers are still shut down while other companies are having issues with getting power. In addition, its simply going to take Japanese automotive companies a little more time to get back producing the number of cars that were being made before the natural disasters.
Toyota’s recent vehicle recall isn’t helping the foreign auto industry either. For the third time in less than two years, Toyota found that it had produced several lines of cars with major structural and safety issues. It will take Toyota a few months before it is able to make up for lost profits, and halted production certainly isn’t helping.
Several major ports in Japan are still heavily damaged, which makes it more difficult for auto makers to send supplies and cars. Even worse, many of the workers that the Japanese auto industry has come to rely on haven’t yet returned to work. For the most part, Japan has been quite about all of the problems that it is experiencing, but sales for the month of May indicated that the worst has not yet come. Ever since the disasters occurred in March, sales in the Japanese auto industry have slowly edged up. In due time, all of the factories in Japan will be fully operational again and auto sales will begin to pick up. Until then, Japanese car makers will have to focus on the local market.
