ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
NPR's business news starts with Toyota's supply chain troubles.
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SHAPIRO: Toyota says it's shutting down its North American production tomorrow for one day and halting overtime at several U.S. plants. It's because the automaker can't get parts from Thailand. Thailand is a global car manufacturing hub, and deadly floods there are damaging carmakers' facilities. Toyota's plants in Thailand will be shut through the end of next week. Ford and GM have also suspended production. Honda delayed the release of a new model because it couldn't get the necessary parts. Thailand is also one of the world's largest producers of hard-disk drives and other computer parts. Sony, Canon and Toshiba are all experiencing production slowdowns. Apple says the flooding has also affected the supply of parts for its Mac computers.
Here in the U.S., the Wall Street Journal reports that one of the country's largest banks, JP Morgan Chase, will not impose a new debit card fee. Bank of America recently announced that it will charge customers $5 a month to use debit cards. There was a consumer backlash, and since then, several other banks have said they will not impose a debit card fee, among them Citigroup and U.S. Bancorp. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
