One small component about the size of a fist can, on its own, exert enough influence to throw nearly a dozen European car assembly plants into a state of complete disruption. In the automotive sector (see Plasteurope.com of 29.03.2011), Hitachi's production plant for an airflow meter for diesel engines was partly destroyed by the devastating earthquake catastrophe in Japan in mid-March 2011 (see Plasteurope.com of 18.03.2011 and 14.03.2011) and now threatens to lead to serious stoppages around the world. Although PSA Peugeot Citroen, whose production was hit first, reported that it had found a way to keep production going, this French OEM, which receives its auto parts by air freight from Japan, is likely to be more the exception than the rule.

Worldwide, managers assume that the big bang is still to come because there are simply too many suppliers in Japan who will be unable to resume production even after many weeks and months. In fact, a large number of them will probably never return at all. It is, therefore, quite possible that entire supply chains around the world will have to be completely reorganised – and that applies not only to the automotive industry.

Car makers are now desperately trying to fill the holes in their supply networks. In France, for example, the companies organised in the automotive supplier association FIEV (Suresnes; www.fiev.fr) are currently drawing up a list of problems which they want to solve together despite the fact that they are normally tough competitors. This, too, may be an indication of how serious the situation is despite some reassuring words from the managers.

Within the last 15 to 20 years, production has shifted to China, India and South America, with certain countries tending to focus on certain products. In China, for example, the emphasis is on textiles and subassemblies, in Japan on electronics and speciality materials for wafers, semi-conductors and lithium-ion batteries, and in Germany on automotive and machine engineering. Global product flows and inter-dependencies have been one of the consequences of this specialisation.

Only in the last few years has there been a gradual tendency to reverse this trend, with production being increasingly shifted to where the customer base is located in order not only to avoid exchange rate fluctuations, but also to escape the increasing transport costs associated with mounting oil prices.

In fact, car production is just one of many problems. According to statistics from the Japanese Finance Ministry, the country produces 20% of all the world's semi-conductors, 60% of the wafers used for micro-electronics and 90% of the BT-epoxy resin materials for printed circuit boards – to mention only a few examples.

The German Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers' Association (ZVEI, Frankfurt / Germany; www.zvei.org) currently reports that, due to the partial loss of production of fluoropolymers such as PTFE, FEP, ETFE and PFA, initial supply bottlenecks are occurring with some European speciality cable manufacturers. According to the ZVEI, such cables are used above all in the automotive and industrial sectors. The ability of these speciality cable producers to supply is already significantly restricted, and, the report continues, it is inevitable that price increases will result.

Overall, the situation for large sections of the German cable industry is exceedingly tense, and there is no sign of any quick relief on the horizon. According to Japanese reports, the situation is also becoming tight with styrene-based TPEs, where the world's second-largest manufacturer Kuraray has had to halt production in Kashima until further notice due to the tsunami. TPEs are also often used for the production of blends. Furthermore, the polymer production lines that are still managing to operate in Japan are suffering from bottlenecks with some of the functional additives used in PE and PP production. According to reports, negotiations are currently under way to ease the situation at least on a temporary basis, by granting approval for replacement substances.

Furthermore, there are increasing reports of threatened bottlenecks with speciality BOPET films for monitor production. Although Toray, one of the main producers, says it has suffered little direct damage to its own production facilities and has already restarted production at some of the plants, supplier companies have apparently been severely hit. And, as everywhere, there are continuous problems with power supplies. Meanwhile, Teijin DuPont Films has resumed operations at the Japanese Ibaraki site (see Plasteurope.com of 01.04.0211).