Japan disaster could hit Europe's automakers, French supplier says

PARIS/STUTTGART -- Europe's car industry may see an impact from the Japan disaster from next month if the situation does not improve, but has so far been shielded by existing inventories, the CEO of French car parts supplier Plastic Omnium said.

"At this stage there is no impact on production in Europe," Laurent Burelle said. "If it continued, depending on the type of product, everyone would last until the end of the month, more or less... but it would be complicated from the start of April," he said.

VW task force

Volkswagen AG has set up a task force to oversee component supplies in Japan, CEO Martin Winterkorn said Thursday at a press conference in Stuttgart.

Component supplies at VW's and Porsche's Japanese operations aren't affected by the earthquake, though it cannot be ruled out that "problems" may arise over the medium term, Winterkorn said.