With their parents reeling under the impact of the ravaging earthquake and tsunami, Indian arms of Japanese automakers such as Maruti Suzuki, Toyota Kirloskar and Honda Siel have decided to either cancel or postpone some of their big events here.
The auto majors, which are controlled by managements from the island nation, are still assessing the possible impact on sourcing of parts from the supplier base of their parents.
Indian car market leader Maruti Suzuki has cancelled the celebrations for rolling out its 1,00,00,000th car tomorrow in view of the devastating earthquake and tsunami on March 11.
"This is a big tragedy on mankind. That is why we are not doing anything on our one crore production mark. We have cancelled everything, this is not the time to celebrate," Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) Chairman R C Bhargava told PTI.
Some of MSI employees, working with Suzuki in its plant in Hamamatsu, are safe, he added.
Likewise, Japanese auto major Honda said it has postponed the preview of its small car Brio in India that was scheduled for March 17.
Last week, compatriot Toyota had said it postponed the official inauguration of its second Indian manufacturing facility at Bangalore in view of the 8.9-magnitude quake, the most powerful since the 1923 tremor in Great Kanto in Tokyo.
These auto majors, alongwith their other compatriots, source a large chunk of critical components from Japan. Although, there has been no clear picture so far about affect on imports, it seems that companies will face tough time to continue production once the current buffer stocks end.
"There will not be any immediate affect on production. We are at present trying to assess if there will be any impact on long-term," MSI Managing Executive Officer (Marketing and Sales) Mayank Pareek said.
The company usually has buffer stock of components for about two weeks and till then normal production will continue, he added.
Pareek declined to give further details, saying that until a complete assessment is done no further comments could be made.
He said MSI will go ahead with starting of deliveries of its luxury sedan Kizashi from tomorrow.
"So far we have received 500 bookings. We imported about 100 cars in the first lot and we will deliver those at first. For the future, we cannot say anything now," Pareek said.
The world's largest carmaker Toyota, which is present in India through a joint venture with the Kirloskar Group, at present has a stock of parts for about 10 days.
"The production in Japan has been stopped for three days and we may face the ripple effect in April. Some suppliers are missing, some are not able to assess the exact scenario of their plants in Japan. Its a very confusing picture at this moment," Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) Deputy Managing Director (Commercial) Shekar Viswanathan said.
The company is studying the situation at this moment, he added.
TKM employees working in Japan with Toyota Motor Corp are safe and the Indian firm has constituted a task force to monitor the situation.
Another car maker, Honda Siel Cars India (HSCI), the joint venture between Honda and the Siel Group, is also assessing the situation and the safety of its suppliers.
"We import some engine parts from Japan and at present we have one month's stock with us. So till then, our production will continue normally. We are trying to study any possible damage and safety of the plants of our suppliers in Japan," HSCI Vice President (Marketing) Jnaneswar Sen said.
Two-wheeler operations of Honda and Yamaha in India will largely remain unaffected as most of the parts are locally sourced.
