Flooding in Thailand could stop production at Toyota’s American plants, which could increase prices for consumers. Toyota sources many different components for it’s American-built vehicles from Thailand, so the flooding there could disrupt the supply chain and delay production.
The potential delays from the Thai floods could create a situation like the one after the Japanese Tsunami in which the panic over the prospect of Toyota not having enough cars to satisfy demand caused incentives to drop and prices to raise.
Toyota says that it will be able to switch production for the components affected by the Thailand floods, which include around 100 different pieces of audio equipment, diodes and condensers to Malaysia and the Philippines in order to continue production, according to Autoblog. The company claims that production will not be affected, but has already stopped production in Thailand, cut down on some Japanese plants and is considering losing one day of production per week at the four American plants.
Buyers should be wary of the potential sky-is-falling price increases because of the flooding in the coming weeks and possibly months. Don’t be afraid of waiting for some time if the dealership you’re dealing with is unwilling to budge on pricing that you think they normally would.
