MANILA—Toyota and Ford on Wednesday announced temporary shutdowns at their Philippine plants due to expected parts shortages caused by Japan's March 11 earthquake disaster, officials said.
Honda's Philippine subsidiary announced last week it would halve its April output for the same reason
Ford Motors Philippines said the American automaker's shutdown began on Monday and would last until May 9, although it added the interruption would not have a serious impact on the company's corporate results.
"Starting this week, we are pulling ahead 18 previously scheduled down days at our manufacturing facility in the Philippines as a precautionary move to ensure we have parts availability going forward," the company statement said.
"Our inventories are adequate to support consumer demand at this point."
The 18 "down days" cover official working days over the four-week period, during which there are Easter holidays.
Toyota Motor Philippines will suspend operations from Monday through Wednesday next week due to a shortage of parts, Dow Jones Newswires quoted company spokesman Rommel Gutierrez as saying.
The unit "will have three non-production days in April due to a temporary limitation in the supply of production parts," Gutierrez said, without specifying whether the parts are from Japan.
Gutierrez could not be reached by AFP on Wednesday.
Toyota, Ford and Honda are among the top five automotive manufacturers in the Philippines, selling sedans, pickups and recreational vehicles with the first two also selling pickup trucks.
The Toyota parent announced in Japan earlier Wednesday that it would suspend production for several days in late April and early May at five plants in Britain, France, Poland, and Turkey amid expected supply difficulties.