No major impact on Japanese motor vehicle sales in Sri Lanka:

Vehicle shipment delays likely

Charumini de Silva

The devastation in North East of Japan will have no major impact on Japanese motor vehicle sales in Sri Lanka. However there might be a few delays in the shipments, industry sources said.

Yoshiaki Kato

Tilak Gunasekera

Toyota Lanka Managing Director Yoshiaki Kato said there may be delays in shipments of vehicles, but there will be no major impact on vehicle sales in Sri Lanka.

Kato said Toyota Lanka has a commendable number of vehicle stocks and there will not be a huge impact on operations in Sri Lanka.

Some of the Toyota plants have been affected by the recent tsunami and there might be some limited range of products for a short period of time.

The mother company of Toyota is still gathering information on those affected plants in North East of Japan.

However, there will be no huge impact and it is just a matter of recovering from the current situation.

Ceylon Motor Traders Association President Tilak Gunasekera said all members that import Japanese vehicles will be affected for sometime till Japan recovers from this huge natural disaster which occurred recently.

He said there would be definite reductions in vehicle production and vehicle shipments since many of the major ports have been affected.

Majority of the staff has been directed to engage in humanitarian and rescue missions around the affected areas where only the top management of the companies are working.

Most of the companies have shut down their overseas operations at present and will take time to pull through.

Isuzu has announced that the company is closed from March 14 to 18.

There are certain issues that the giant Japanese vehicle manufacturers looked at currently with the calamity the country had to face and the resolving of these conditions will depend on individual companies."However, the ships that have left the ports before the disaster will have no impact and there will be no increase in the prices as it is a matter of recovering from the dreadful experience," Gunasekera said.