Suga: Japan Has No Plan For New Nuclear Plants

Suga: Japan has no plan for new nuclear plants

Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide has ruled out new nuclear plants or new reactors for Japan at this point, as the country aims to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050.

Suga was answering questions from Constitutional Democratic Party leader Edano Yukio in the Lower House Budget Committee on Wednesday.

Honda And Fca Won't Restart Their North American Plants Until May

Honda and FCA won't restart their North American plants until May

TOKYO — Honda on Tuesday said that it had furloughed workers at its U.S. plants, which will be closed until May 1 as demand for cars in the country has plummeted due to the spread of the coronavirus.

A spokesman for Honda, which employs about 18,400 workers at plants in Alabama, Indiana and Ohio, said the Japanese automaker would guarantee salaries through Sunday, having suspended operations on March 23. Operations at its Powersports plant in South Carolina, which makes all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), have been suspended since March 26.

Toyota, Nissan, Hyundai Temporarily Shut North American Plants

Toyota, Nissan, Hyundai temporarily shut North American plants

Following the closure of car factories by Ford, GM, FCA and Honda, another group of automakers is shutting down plants in the face of the COVID-19 coronavirus threat. Toyota, Nissan and Hyundai have all announced they will be closing production facilities temporarily. The number of plants and the length of time closed varies significantly between companies, though.

Nissan, in a move similar to the American automakers, will shut down all U.S. factories starting Friday. The planned reopening of those plants is April 6. The company reports no confirmed cases of COVID-19 among its factory employees and that this is a precautionary measure.

Honda Closing North American Plants As Coronavirus Slows Sales

Honda closing North American plants as coronavirus slows sales

Honda on Wednesday announced plans for a six-day production suspension at all of its vehicle assembly and components plants in North America, reducing output by around 40,000 vehicles as it anticipates a slowdown in sales due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The temporary closure starts Monday, March 23 at all five of Honda's U.S. vehicle assembly plants, its Ohio transmission and engine plants, and its components plant in Georgia, plus five plants in Mexico and Canada. Honda's current plan is to resume production at all North American plants on March 31.

Toyota Implements New Airless Paint Atomizer At Japanese Plants

Toyota implements new airless paint atomizer at Japanese plants

Automotive manufacturers are in a constant state of searching for newer, better, faster, and overall more efficient ways to produce their cars, not only in regards to to time and money but also to pollution. Toyota's latest technology, an airless paint atomizer, addresses all three. 

Toyota claims to have the the first airless paint atomizer used to paint car bodies in the world. By using this technology, Toyota says it achieves more than 95% coating efficiency, meaning what actually sticks to the body, in comparison to 60 to 70% efficiency from a normal paint atomizer that does use air. In addition to painting cars more quickly and effectively, this technique could potentially reduce the Toyota Group's carbon dioxide emissions by about 7%. 

China Auto Plants At Coronavirus Epicenter Will Remain Closed

China auto plants at coronavirus epicenter will remain closed

TOKYO — Japanese automakers delayed on Friday the restart of plants in China near the epicenter of a coronavirus outbreak, complying with authorities' directives but raising the risk of further supply disruptions that could hit global car production.

Nissan Motor Co said it would keep its plants in Xianyang in the central province of Hubei, and Zhengzhou in the neighboring province of Henan, shuttered after Monday, when it had planned to resume operations, but did not set a new date.

Toyota Closes Its Plants In China Over Coronavirus

Toyota closes its plants in China over coronavirus

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang speaks to medical workers in a hospital where coronavirus patients are being treated in Wuhan, China. / Reuters   BEIJING/SHANGHAI — Toyota Motor Corp's production plants in China will stay closed through Feb. 9, the Japanese automaker said on Wednesday, in response to the spread of a new coronavirus that now includes a sharp rise in fatalities. Toyota, which runs plants in regions such as the northern city of Tianjin and the southern province of Guangdong, said the closures after the Lunar New Year holidays were in line with transport lockdowns in some places, and as it assesses its parts supply situation. The United States and Japan evacuated their nationals from the quarantined city of Wuhan, while British Airways suspended flights to mainland China.  Deaths have leapt to 132, and a Chinese government economist predicted a huge hit to the economy. Beijing's pledge to slay the "devil" coronavirus has won the trust of the World Health Organization (WHO) but confirmation of another 1,459 cases — taking the total to 5,974 in China — only fueled public alarm worldwide. Travelers with the illness were identified around the world, including in the United States, but almost all of the cases of the illness have been in the central province of Hubei, the capital of which is Wuhan, where the virus emerged last month in a live wild animal market. The situation remained "grim and complex," Chinese President Xi Jinping acknowledged. In many Chinese cities, streets were largely deserted, with the few who ventured out wearing masks. Starbucks stores in Beijing required people to have temperatures taken and posted notices saying it was a state requirement to wear masks inside. "It's my first time here in Asia, I feel very unlucky," said Brazilian tourist Amanda Lee, 23, reluctantly cutting short a trip. "I couldn't even see the places I wanted, like the Great Wall." There was relief, however, among those evacuated from Hubei province, home to about 60 million people and under virtual lockdown. "I was extremely worried that I was stuck there," said Takeo Aoyama, who arrived in Tokyo on a chartered plane carrying 206 Japanese out of Wuhan, with more flights planned. Two of the Japanese evacuated had symptoms of pneumonia, but coronavirus had not been confirmed, medics said. The virus is weighing heavily on the world's second-biggest economy. Companies are curbing travel to China, and airlines are cutting flights, with British Airways one of the biggest names in aviation to do so. But in what could be a major step towards taming the disease, scientists in Australia said they had developed a lab-grown version of the coronavirus, the first to be recreated outside China. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said about 210 Americans had been flown out of Wuhan. Those on board the aircraft would be screened several times and evaluated on arrival in California, it said in a statement released via the U.S. embassy in Beijing. A U.S. government official told Reuters 50 diplomats and contractors were among the passengers. U.S. officials said the White House was weighing whether to suspend flights to China. It was holding daily meetings on the outbreak and monitoring China-U.S. flights as a likely source of infection, sources briefed on the matter said, though it had decided against suspending air traffic for the time being. The number of cases in China now exceeds its tally of 5,327 infected with the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) coronavirus that killed about 800 people globally in 2002 and 2003. While some experts believe the new strain, known as "2019-nCoV", is not as deadly as SARS, alarm has grown over its rapid spread and many unknown attributes, such as how lethal it is. Like other respiratory infections, it is spread by droplets from coughs and sneezes, with an incubation time between one and 14 days. There are signs it may spread before symptoms show. About 60 cases, but no deaths, have been reported in 15 other countries, including the United States, France and Singapore.  

Nissan To Close Plants, Do Layoffs, Kill Models In Restructuring Plan

Nissan to close plants, do layoffs, kill models in restructuring plan

The Nissan Ariya concept.   YOKOHAMA, Japan — Nissan is planning aggressive cost cuts to deal with an unexpected slump in sales as the expansionist strategy it inherited from fugitive former Chairman Carlos Ghosn flounders, four people familiar with the plans said. Japan's second biggest carmaker is set to eliminate at least 4,300 white-collar jobs and shut two manufacturing sites as part of broader plans to add at least 480 billion yen ($4.4 billion) to its bottom line by 2023, two of the people told Reuters. The moves come on top of a turnaround plan unveiled in July and are likely to include cutting Nissan's range of cars and the array of product options and trims in each line, slashing jobs mostly at head offices in the United States and Europe, and reducing advertising and marketing budgets, they said. "The situation is dire. It's do or die," a person close to Nissan's senior management and the company's board told Reuters. Most of the planned cuts and measures to enhance efficiency were presented to Nissan's board in November and received its general blessing, two sources said. A Nissan spokeswoman declined to comment on new restructuring measures or the view that weaker-than-expected sales were the catalyst for a global overhaul. Under Ghosn, Nissan embarked on a global expansion, boosting capacity to add new models, driving more decidedly into markets such as India, Russia, South Africa and southeast Asia and spending heavily on promotions and marketing to hit targets. Now, many of those models are missing sales goals, and executives at Nissan's Yokohama headquarters estimate up to 40% of its global manufacturing capacity is unused, or under-used. Some executives are worried Nissan, part of an alliance with Renault and Mitsubishi, could post another loss at its carmaking business in the last quarter of 2019 — and possibly for all its operations in the fiscal year ending in March. One source said that would most likely hinge on whether Nissan books big restructuring expenses in its current financial year, or waits until the year ending in March 2021. Reuters spoke to nine people familiar with Nissan's plans. All declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the subject.

Missed targets

In July, Nissan said it would cut 12,500 jobs from 14 sites around the world, from the United Kingdom to Spain, Mexico, Japan, India and Indonesia — and reduce its model range by 10%. At the time, Nissan officials told Reuters that meant shutting one production line at each plant. Now, Nissan is considering shutting two plants permanently, on top of the reductions at the 14 other sites, people close to Nissan's management and board with knowledge of the matter told Reuters. They didn't say which two new sites were at risk. People familiar with the plans said the axe was also likely to fall at Nissan's North American head office in Tennessee and its European headquarters in Geneva, as they were bloated with high-spending sales and marketing staff. One source with direct knowledge of the turnaround plan said Nissan's marketing teams globally gobble up nearly 1 trillion yen a year, or about 45% of Nissan's annual fixed costs of 2.1 trillion. Nissan had been saddled with the excess, "thanks to (Ghosn's) highly aggressive, expansionist volume goals, which we failed to achieve," the source said. A spokeswoman for Ghosn said he declined to comment for this story. Ghosn told a news conference in Beirut on Jan. 8 that Nissan's poor performance since 2017 was down to Hiroto Saikawa, who formally took over from him as Nissan CEO in April 2017. "He was CEO and he was responsible for it," Ghosn said. In addition to cuts in Nissan's fixed costs, managers are also considering plans to kill off unprofitable models, accelerate the pace of new product development and reduce the average age of its lineup to 2½ years, down from 5 now. The new plans aim to add 480 billion yen to Nissan's bottom line by the end of March 2023, with 300 billion from cuts in fixed costs and 180 billion from an array of cars to be launched in the next three years, people familiar with the matter said. Nissan is aiming to achieve an operating margin of 6% on revenue of 14.5 trillion yen by March 2023, compared with 3.0% from 13.0 trillion forecast for the year ending in March 2020, according to plans announced in July. But since July, Nissan's operating performance has worsened by more than expected, making it likely its new management team will have to find savings significantly above the 480 billion yen currently envisaged to hit its targets, three sources said.

'Phase Two'

To be sure, Nissan has plenty of cash in its coffers to cope with setbacks. According to quarterly results, it had 1.14 trillion yen in net cash at the end of September. Still, sources said Nissan was no longer adding freshly generated cash to its war chest, mainly because of its high fixed costs and the sales slide. Furthermore, it has expensive car launches in the next few years that could eat into reserves. "Even if we had one trillion yen in cash, that could be depleted in no time if we didn't pay attention," a person close to Nissan management told Reuters. Three of the people said the collapse in Nissan sales around the world was a major factor in forcing the company to consider restructuring above and beyond the measures outlined in July. They said Nissan's global sales would likely fall to 5 million vehicles, or slightly above, way short of its sales goal of 5.5 million for its current financial year. The worse-than-expected downturn, which has forced Nissan to spend more on promotions to cushion the fallout, has created additional urgency to take more drastic steps, sources said. Of particular concern is the U.S. market, where sales fell 10% in 2019, and the continued sluggishness of the Chinese market, which left Nissan's sales volumes down 1.1% from 2018. One especially troublesome issue for Nissan has been its sales efficiency. In 2018, it had 69 models and sold 5.2 million vehicles — or 75,000 on average per model line — and it was planning to expand its lineup to 73 by the end of 2022. Now, it is aiming to cut its range to 62 and boost average sales per line to 87,000, the equivalent of Toyota's average last year, according to calculations and forecasts by the team formulating Nissan's recovery plan. "We thought by now we would be selling 6 million cars a year. But the truth of the matter is our selling ability is about just north of 5 million," one source said.  

Open road?

People familiar with Nissan's internal discussions said there was even some concern the new measures being considered, known as "Phase Two" cuts, might not be enough to achieve its three-year turnaround goals if sales don't recover fast enough. "Those Phase Two measures will most likely fall short," said one person familiar with restructuring plans, making a point echoed by several people close to the management team and board. To make matters worse, the restructuring efforts have been disrupted by the political turmoil following Ghosn's departure in 2018, his flight from Japan in December and subsequent accusations against former colleagues at Nissan. According to five sources, the upheaval rattled Nissan's top management team so much that it paralyzed their ability to execute many of the planned restructuring moves smoothly. The latest turmoil lasted from December to mid-January, when the board curbed the influence of "anti-alliance" forces sabotaging the plans, two sources said, declining to elaborate. Nissan's new CEO Makoto Uchida took the reins at the start of December with Ashwani Gupta, who has worked at Mitsubishi, Nissan and Renault, as chief operating officer. "Whoever the action was aimed at, the upshot is that Gupta is now completely freed from pressures from those anti-alliance forces to carry out all the planned turnaround measures," one of the people said. "He should do so without hesitation as the board has cleared the way."


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