Toyota stops production at Chinese car factory after another strike at a supplier

Another strike in China halts Toyota factory

TOKYO — Toyota Motor Corp. said production at one of its main factories in China remained halted Wednesday because of a strike at a supplier, the latest Chinese labor action to hit a Japanese carmaker in recent weeks.

The company’s plant in southern Guangzhou, which represents about half of Toyota’s total capacity in China, remained shut after the strike forced the world’s biggest automaker to suspend production a day earlier.

“Production remains suspended. We don’t know when we can resume operations,” said Toyota spokesman Hideaki Homma in Tokyo.

The factory was closed down after a strike began at a supplier run by Japanese parts-maker Denso Corp.

Denso workers demanding higher wages have refused to work since Monday, said Denso spokesman Yu Matsuda from the company’s headquarters in Aichi, central Japan.

Denso held wage negotiations with workers, Matsuda said, but declined to give details. Denso’s plant, which employs 1,100 workers, makes fuel injectors for engines.

Chinese migrant workers, the backbone of the country’s industrial sector, are becoming increasingly vocal in demands for higher wages. Several auto-related labor disputes have erupted recently in the Guangzhou region, where both Toyota and Honda have manufacturing bases with local partner Guangzhou Auto Group.

Last week, a strike at a Toyota plastic parts supplier in the northeastern Chinese city of Tainjin forced a Toyota plant there to shut down for a day. That followed a similar one-day walkout at another supplier earlier in the week.

The latest shutdown occurred at GAC Toyota Motor Company Ltd., which can produce 360,000 cars, such as the Camry, per year at full operation. Toyota has a total Chinese capacity of about 800,000 vehicles at five plants.

Earlier strikes at several Chinese suppliers of Honda Motor Co. have forced it to suspend car assembly intermittently in the past month because of a lack of parts.

Workers at Honda Lock (Guangdong) ended a strike and went back to their jobs last week after the company agreed to continue talks on their demands for wage increases.

The increasing agitation among workers poses a problem for Japanese companies that shifted production to China in the hopes of taking advantage of lower labor costs and cashing in on its growing consumer market.