Hino SA’s truck plant in Prospecton outside Durban has already begun ramping up to its required output after restarting production on 23 May.
This comes after a 40-day forced shutdown due to widespread damage caused by floods that hit KZN on 11 April.
“This was a wonderful reward for a Herculean effort by a dedicated team that included three specialists from Hino Motors in Japan who had prior experience in cleaning up and putting into operation factories damaged by tsunamis in Japan,” said Hino SA vice president Ernie Trautmann.
After the floods, 78 built-up trucks or completely knocked down kits of components were unsalvageable and will be scrapped and destroyed so none of these compromised vehicles get into the market.
The major damage was caused by a wall of water and mud that came down the river next to the plant during the floods at the overfull Shongweni Dam but the existing canals and drains had been able to manage the initial downfall of rain and also proved effective when the second round of heavy flooding hit KZN on 21 May.
Cleaning mud and fine mud from the many pieces of electronic and mechanical equipment in the various production plants has been very time-consuming and the Toyota passenger car and light commercial vehicle production lines are still not operational.
None of the suppliers to the Hino plant were affected, whereas many supporting the car and light commercial vehicle plant suffered great damage to plants and equipment.
Hino lost about 550 vehicles out of scheduled production, but the management team is confident they’ll be able to catch up this shortfall by year end.
About 100 assembly line workers went home for the first week after the floods and then returned to the plant in batches during the following weeks to assist in the flood recovery programme.
