Would Resin shortage affect my order?
 

Heard about the global shortage due to explosion in factory in Germany... it would hit the manufactures in few weeks... I wonder this would push back some orders...:sigh:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1430884.html

Certainly not good news for anybody. It looks like them and one French company responsible for about half of the world's PA12 production. No fuel line material could certainly be a problem!

Interesting find. Given shipping times to Japan for the raw materials plus manufacturing time there would probably be roughly a month's supply available before production would be affected.

Does not look like it impacts Toyota's Japanese production, although no news about Subaru:
http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dl...resin-shortage

That's their North American supply chain for cars built in the U.S.; has no relation to the Japanese factories.

^ That was self-evident from the quote.

I work for a auto supplier in Detroit.

Word on the street here is that they had a big emergecy session with suppliers and big 3 manufacturers to discuss the situation.

It sounds like there are no immediate impacts on the auto sector. I guess the auto manufacturers have some priority over other industries in buying the resin because they buy so much of it. However, the shortages will come.. Sounds like it could crimp production this summer. While the EU manufacturers may have the most immediate supply issues, all regions will be affected by the shortage. They are looking at late fall before this factory can come back online.

They are also looking at alternative materials.. and doing so very quickly.. however they must go through a difficult validation process to ensure safety.. especially since they are used in fuel and brakes.


What does this mean for the FRS/BRZ.. If you have an early order, it will have no impact. Chances are, if you were expecting to have your car in May or June, there should not be any delays. However if you are thinking July or later.. then it's quite possible there might be delays.

The manufacturers will have to decide how to allocate the shortened supply.. If Subaru gets less supply and has to make cuts and delays.. will they cut all model production equally? Or will they distribute the shortage based on other factors? Would they make less Impreza's or less Outbacks? Would they cut production of the BRZ? I can't imagine it's the most profitbale model they make.. but it does have the biggest spotlight right now.

We'll have to see how this all shakes out.

Pretty crazy! If there are production cutbacks then those poor Japanese souls who have 86s scheduled for January 2013 are going to have to wait even longer!

Touché, sir, however it still doesn't answer the question. It seems like they only had sources from North America.

I wonder how it will work for the July-November cars, if indeed there is a delay...

These days, almost all manufacturers source their parts from similar venders... thus the problem of shortage. If big 3 is worried about it, I don't think Toyota or Subaru is excused from it... I agree it might impact July- on production cars since April, May cars should have shipped (2~3 weeks shipping from Japan?). Hopefully impact is minimal.