TOKYO – Subaru has lost at least a week of production volume and counting, including output of key export models for the U.S., as its Japanese assembly plants remain idle following the rare on-the-job death of a worker, a 60-year-old veteran who was crushed to death by a 25-ton mold.
As of Wednesday, Subaru had still not decided when to restart operations, a spokeswoman said.
The temporary shutdown means that Subaru has lost six days of production for nameplates such as the Forester and Crosstrek crossovers for export as well as the BRZ sporty coupe.
Based on the company’s domestic production cadence for December, of roughly 2,581 vehicles a day, the Japanese automaker has lost some 15,000 vehicles of output. The Subaru spokeswoman could not confirm lost production volume but said factories worked five-day weeks.
Subaru’s lines remain idle out of respect to the victim’s family and workers, the spokeswoman said. Subaru is also reviewing safety protocols to ensure there is not a repeat accident.
Subaru, which is booking a double-digit profit margin, saw operating profit surge 79 percent in the October-December quarter as the company boosted global sales by 12 percent.
Full resumption might not happen until next week – pushing the shutdown to seven or eight days. Friday, Feb. 23, is a national holiday in Japan to celebrate the emperor’s birthday.
It is unclear what plants might have been scheduled to operate on the holiday.
Japan’s Nikkei business daily reported on Wednesday that Subaru informed suppliers the suspension would be extended through Feb. 22 and that only a partial startup would happen from Feb. 23.
A full ramp up would happen from Feb. 26, the Nikkei said.
The accident happened on the evening of Feb. 13, after a 25-ton mold fell on a worker at the Yajima assembly plant in Gunma prefecture north of Tokyo, local media reported.
A police spokesman in Ota, the city where the Yajima factory is located, confirmed details of the death. Police identified the worker as a 60-year-old man who was a 35-year veteran of Subaru.
The man was operating a crane by himself using a remote control to lift and move 25-ton molds, the local Jomo Shimbun reported.
One of the molds collapse pinning the worker between another mold. An autopsy determined the cause of death as asphyxiation.
The shutdown affected three plants in the Gunma region, Subaru’s main production hub.
The Yajima assembly plant, where the accident occurred, makes the Impreza compact, and the Outback, Crosstrek and Forester crossovers. The nearby Main plant makes the BRZ, Impreza and Crosstrek as well as the WRX sports car and the Levorg, a Japan-market wagon.
Also affected was the local Oizumi engine and transmission plant.
Subaru’s domestic output climbed 8.1 percent to 608,327 vehicles in calendar year 2023, for the second straight year of increases. Production in Japan accounted for about 63 percent of the export-dependent company’s global output.
Exports from Japan increased 13 percent to 509,199 units last year, also racking the second consecutive year of higher production.
Subaru has been racing to recoup lost volume since the pandemic and global semiconductor shortage slowdown. Its Japanese factories delivered record production of 727,741 vehicles in 2016. But domestic output fell 7.9 percent to 570,416 in 2020 and dropped to 475,141 in 2021.
