Toyota Motor Corp said its biggest source of production in China is to remain closed for at least two weeks following the deadly Tianjin explosions on Aug. 12 as safety concerns prevent the company from resuming operations.
The automaker’s affiliate Tianjin FAW Toyota Motor Co (天津一汽豐田) is to extend the production shutdown through Wednesday, spokesman Itsuki Kurosu said in an e-mail. About 4,700 Toyota and Lexus vehicles were damaged by the explosions at a chemical storage site in Tianjin, he said.
Operations are to restart once Toyota is able to confirm the safety of its facilities and the surrounding area, Kurosu said. Tianjin FAW Toyota built about 440,000 Crown, Reiz, Corolla and Vios cars last year, almost half of Toyota’s annual vehicle output in China.
Toyota has emerged as one of the hardest-hit carmakers by the blasts at a Tianjin warehouse holding toxic material that killed at least 121 people and injured 67 Toyota employees living in the surrounding area.
The disaster took a broader toll on the auto industry, damaging 2,700 Volkswagen AG cars and shutting a nearby Hyundai Motor Co logistics center.
Separately, US auto-safety regulators are investigating Honda’s 2008 model Accord after receiving 19 reports that air-bag control modules had failed.
As many as 384,000 vehicles might be affected by a malfunction that could stop airbags from deploying in a crash, according to an National Highway Traffic Safety Administration filing, which states that the investigation opened on Tuesday last week. One of the reports involved a crash in which the airbags did not inflate and the driver was injured, the document states.
The problem causes the air-bag status lamp to light up and the air-bag system remains disabled until repaired, according to the administration’s Office of Defects Investigation.
The office is to examine the scope and frequency of the issue in deciding whether to seek a recall.
Air bags have been a thorn in the side for Honda and the auto industry more broadly this year. Early last month, the company recalled 4.5 million cars globally in connection with Takata Corp air bags, expanding the industry’s largest recall ever.
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