Volkswagen says 2700 cars damaged in China port blasts

As a result, the explosion had no impact on production by Toyota on its three lines near the area hit hard by the explosion.

He said the explosions called attention to deficiencies in China’s soft infrastructure, things like safety standards and emergency preparedness, which are usually overshadowed by China’s shiny skyscrapers and impressive roads. “Are they really the state-of-the-art economy we thought they were?” Hyundai said it had around 4,000 vehicles, mostly high-end cars, parked at the site.

‘We can confirm that no deaths have been reported’.

Meanwhile, the Tianjin port authority said operations at the port had returned to normal following the warehouse blasts on 12 August.

US-based John Deere, which manufactures agricultural, construction, and forestry machinery, diesel engines and lawn care equipment, said it was halting work near Tianjin indefinitely after some of its employees were injured and several buildings were damaged in the blasts.

Operations at the port are “slowly returning”, Giannetta said.

Panasonic, which has a product development center 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the blast site, kept its offices closed Monday, out of safety concerns. The company says it doesn’t know whether it will reopen Tuesday. The company did not anticipate a material impact on business. Apart from Tianjin, the company also imports cars through Shanghai and Guangzhou, and it said it will make sure its dealers receive deliveries and it hopes not to inconvenience customers.

Tianjin, China’s fourth-largest port, handles around 40 percent of China’s auto imports. Volkswagen said it had lost around 2,700 vehicles, including New Beetle, Golf and Tiguan models. Zhang Le, Renault’s public relations officer told China Daily that the damaged vehicles are mainly Koleos, the company’s SUV model. Mitsubishi Motors Corp. said 600 of its cars may have been damaged.