Nissan to resume normal car production in Japan in mid-April

The northeast part of Japan serves as the country's hub of auto manufacturing. That area, however, was also hardest hit by this month's earthquake and subsequent tsunami. Because of the damage done to its plants in the country, Nissan said this week it is working to resume production at its Japanese plants by mid-April - though production capacity could be limited at first.

Nissan is Japan's second-biggest automobile manufacturer after Toyota Motor and has been using its existing stocks of components to run its assembly lines this week, company executives said. Nonetheless, Nissan will suspend its automaking operations next week. Currently, the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association is working to help carmakers in the country to work with their big suppliers to jump-start the production and delivery of components.

"Nissan is now capable of resuming normal operations at all of our Japanese plants except for the Iwaki engine plant," the company said in a statement. "We are aiming to resume normal operations at these facilities from mid-April. As the delivery of parts will take time to be fully re-established, operation levels will still be limited, depending on the delivery status from suppliers."

So far, supply disruptions from the quake and tsunami have resulted in the lost production of 55,000 cars, a Nissan executive affirmed.