Plants will hum to keep (or grab) share

Forget summer vacation. Instead, North American assembly plants will be making up lost production or, in some cases, building extra vehicles to grab market share from Toyota and Honda.

As Japanese companies struggle to restore output, the industry as a whole will be cranking it up. North American light-vehicle production will be higher in the third quarter than the second quarter this year, say forecasters at IHS Automotive and J.D. Power and Associates. If so, it will be only the second time that has happened in 20 years.

Even the assembly plants hardest hit by Japan's earthquake crisis are picking up the pace. Toyota and Honda say production is bouncing back earlier than anticipated.

Beginning June 4, Toyota will be back to full production of the U.S.-built Avalon, Camry, Corolla, Highlander, Matrix, Sequoia, Sienna and Venza, said Bob Carter, general manager of Toyota Division.

"This is happening much sooner than we expected," said Carter. "It's going to take a little time to get the pipeline going, but dealers will have core vehicles in arriving in good quantities by the middle of June."

Honda told U.S. dealers last week that it expects production to bottom out this month before rising in July and August. And Jim O'Sullivan, CEO of Mazda North American Operations, says he is telling dealers, "We won't run out of cars now and during the summer."

Still, he admits that Mazda probably won't be producing at normal levels until the fourth quarter.

But the overall industry looks like it will perk up much quicker. Both IHS and J.D. Power forecast the industry's third-quarter production at 3.2 million units, up from 3.0 million in the three months ending June 30 and up 6 percent from the year-earlier period.