As the National Union of Mineworkers of South Africa-led metal and engineering sector strike continues, vehicle manufacturers have started halting production at some plants as car component supply is interrupted.
Toyota, which maintained full production for the first 14 days of the strike, owing to contingency build-up, was set to shut down two production lines on Tuesday.
The production of Corolla and IMV (Hilux and Fortuner) vehicles would be suspended, while the output of Quantum and truck (Hino/Dyna) production continued.
“We will implement some maintenance and training during the shutdown period,” Toyota South Africa senior manager for corporate communications Mary Willemse told Engineering News Online in an emailed response to questions.
Ford's Pretoria plant was also affected.
“Production at our Silverton assembly plant has been impacted as of today. This is due to industrial action by certain suppliers. We are monitoring the situation and hope the parties will reach an amicable agreement quickly so that production can resume as soon as possible,” Ford corporate communications manager Alisea Chetty said.
Newswire Reuters quoted Mercedes Benz head of the local unit Arno van der Merwe as saying that while production at its plant continued, supplies were "critical".
Meanwhile, General Motors South Africa (GMSA) had lost eight days of production at its main South African assembly plant, in Port Elizabeth, after the strike interrupted the supply of components.
“In anticipation of the strike we built up sufficient inventory of vehicles to ensure ongoing supply of vehicles to customers in the short to the medium term,” said GMSA corporate communications manager Gishma Johnson.
GMSA said its parts and accessories operations, as well as the Isuzu truck plant, in Kempston road, Port Elizabeth, continued to operate as normal.