United States motor company Ford has suspended production at one of its South African plants and Japanese car-maker Toyota plans to follow suit as a manufacturing workers' strike hits suppliers of car components, according to press reports.
Business Report noted that Toyota, the biggest carmaker by exports, will halt production of the Corolla, Hilux and Fortuner models at its Durban plant starting today (Wednesday) according to Mary Willemse, spokeswoman for the Japanese company in South Africa. She reportedly said the shutdown “is due to the ongoing strike in the metals industry, cutting supply of car components for the models”.
Ford halted output at its Silverton plant outside Pretoria yesterday day due to the metalworkers strike.
BDLive.com reports that the strike has hit thousands of companies across the manufacturing sector, having an impact directly on the 10 500 companies within the Metals and Engineering Sector Bargaining Council and indirectly on businesses reliant on affected suppliers.
The Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of South Africa (Seifsa) has estimated that the strike is costing the South African economy about R300m a day.
Two more carmakers suspend production due to strike
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