On August 22nd, a spokesperson for Japanese car manufacturer Toyota, Tomas Paroubek, announced that production at the company's factory in the Czech Republic had been halted due to a shortage of parts after a local supplier suffered a fire.
Paroubek stated, "We had to suspend production last night. This will naturally affect our production schedule. At the moment, it's unclear how long this shutdown will last."
Despite the interruption in Toyota's production caused by the supplier's fire, staff who previously worked on the production line will maintain their regular working hours. Toyota will assign other tasks, including training, to these employees during the production halt. The company clarified that this decision was made to ensure these employees are fully prepared for a resumption of production.
Toyota's Kolin factory, located about 60 kilometers east of Prague, is responsible for producing the Aygo X mini crossover and the Yaris hatchback, with a daily output of 1,000 vehicles. The factory's production increased by 35% year on year to 202,255 units last year. This incident marks the second shutdown at Toyota's Czech plant this year, with the previous one occurring in February.
Local media reports revealed that Toyota's plastic supplier, Novares CZ Zebrak, located in the Beroun region's Zebrak, had its production and storage facilities destroyed by a massive fire last week, rendering the company unable to deliver parts.
The loss from the fire is estimated to be around 1.8 billion Czech korunas (approximately $8.16445 million), with the production and storage facilities entirely burnt down. Following the incident, Toyota dispatched a team to assess the level of damage to the affected factory. Local media released a video on YouTube, mentioning that it took firefighters 50 hours to finally extinguish the blaze.
The Czech Republic heavily relies on its automotive industry, led by Skoda under the Volkswagen Group, with Korean car manufacturer Hyundai also having a factory in the country.
