DETROIT, March 17 (UPI) -- Japan's earthquake-triggered crises will likely spread through the U.S. auto industry within weeks, a General Motors Co. executive and auto analysts said.
"The impact of this has yet to unfold and might prove bigger than anyone knows, because the industry is now completely globalized," General Motors North America President Mark Reuss told reporters.
GM has contingency plans set up, but Reuss did not elaborate.
The global auto industry is particularly vulnerable to disruptions, such as the quake, tsunami and nuclear crisis that struck northeastern Japan Friday, because car makers rely on a few mega-suppliers for thousands of different vehicle parts, production experts said.
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"All it takes is one or two key components that are missing and you can't build the car," Ron Harbour, a Troy, Mich., partner in charge of the North American automotive practice at international consulting firm Oliver Wyman Group, told The Detroit News.
The U.S. auto industry, as the largest U.S. importer of goods sent by ship from Japan, is particularly vulnerable to disruption, the Journal of Commerce reported.
For instance, Ford Motor Co. depends on a Sanyo Electric Co. plant in Japan for battery packs for the Ford Fusion midsize car, Ford Escape sport utility vehicle and Lincoln MKS luxury sedan hybrids.
The automaker has an adequate supply for now, and the Sanyo plant was undamaged, Ford spokesman Todd Nissen told the Los Angeles Times. But Ford would run into trouble if a supplier to Sanyo couldn't produce components and tripped up battery production, he said.
Chrysler Group LLC, which gets 2 percent to 5 percent of its components from Japan, said its U.S. assembly plants could start running short of parts in four to six weeks.
Japanese automakers with U.S. factories could be hit harder than U.S. automakers because they typically get 15 percent to 35 percent of their parts from Japan, analysts said.
Even with stockpiles of components, the speed at which automakers will face critical parts shortages "will surprise a lot of people," said Michael Robinet, a Northville, Mich., analyst with forecasting company IHS Automotive. "We're already seeing an impact in terms of reduced overtime."
Toyota canceled overtime at its U.S. plants this week, but is running two shifts, a company spokesman said.
"There's a pipeline of parts between Japan and the United States, and we're trying not to burn through that too quickly," spokesman Mike Goss told the News.
Parent Toyota Motor Corp., the world's biggest automaker, said it planned Monday to restart plants making parts for overseas factories. It resumed production Thursday at factories that make replacement parts for vehicles already on the road, it said.
Nissan Motor Co. said its Japanese shutdowns had no effect on the company's North American operations and would "continue to operate on a planned production schedule until further notice."
American Honda Motor Co. said the Japan crisis had "no immediate impact on Honda's operations in North America."
"More than 80 percent of Honda and (Honda luxury) Acura products sold in the U.S. are produced in North America, and the vast majority of automotive parts for Honda automobiles manufactured in North America are sourced in the region," Honda said.
