Car makers and electronics manufacturers are still facing production problems in Japan as the country recovers from the earthquake and tsunami, however it is not expected to have a long-term impact on the price of platinum or palladium.

Large companies including Toyota and Sony closed a number of facilities and now face the task of bringing production back on line in the face of power shortages and the drying-up of parts.

Closures of nuclear reactors caused the government to bring in rolling black-outs, which are hampering companies' attempts to restart work.

"The current situation is still difficult," Chisato Kitsukawa, a spokesman for Sony told Bloomberg.

Nissan stopped operations at six plants in Japan, while closures of Honda factories led the firm to suspend all orders from US dealers for models built in the country, the news provider reports.

The effect of stalling production is being felt elsewhere, with Engineering News reporting that imports of Toyota cars to South Africa have already been affected.

Toyota South Africa Motors spokesperson Leo Kok told the news provider that production of fully built cars in Japan, which was due to restart this week, will not get going until March 27th.

The firm has, however, recommenced the production of service components and manufacturing parts.

"We have teams looking at all our suppliers to assess the level of damage and the impact thereof on our production, but to date we have not received a final indication of the impact," Mr Kok said.

Japan's problems are not only being felt by its own car makers, as US auto giant General Motors (GM) has also indicated that it has been affected.

According to Reuters, the firm suspended production in Zaragoza in Spain on Monday (March 21st) and cancelled some shifts at Eisenach, Germany.

Additionally, GM has suspended all non-essential spending and global travel until the full effects of the crisis in Japan are known.

Electronics firms, which make components for the auto industry as well as consumer gadgets, have also been widely affected by the earthquake and tsunami.

Bloomberg reports that Panasonic has closed two plants and does not know when they will reopen.

Meanwhile, Fujitsu and Nikon have suspended operations at ten and four facilities respectively.

The effect on platinum and palladium, two vital metals used in the manufacturing of cars and electronic devices, will not be long term, according to one mining firm.

Impala Platinum (Implats) marketing executive Derek Engelbrecht told Business Day: "A two-week disruption will not create a lot of waves for platinum group metals (pgm) producers.

"The Chinese were very aggressive buyers of platinum when the price came off after the quake. The Chinese have picked up any slack on platinum."

He went on to say that Implats offered assistance to its Japanese customers, though this was refused.

"We said if they want to delay deliveries or anything like that we would accede to that, but none of them took us up on the offer," Mr Engelbrecht explained.

Sources:

GM curtails spending, travel on Japan crisis (19/03/11)

Toyota, Sony Disruptions May Last Weeks on Supplier, Power Supply Damage (20/03/11)

Japan platinum buyers shrug off quake (23/03/11)

Toyota imports hit snag as Japan plant start-ups stall (23/03/11)

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