Nissan Motors North America Chairman Carlos Tavares revealed Wednesday that the US market share of the company is likely to fall as a result of shortage of auto parts from Japan.

Rapidly rising as of late, Tavares said during the New York Auto Show that the risk of shortage could be lessened if suppliers can find a way to support the ramp-up in production. In an interview with Reuters during the said event, Tavares called the upcoming weeks as “critical” in determining the health of parts suppliers.

According to Autodata, the US market share of Nissan has increased to 9.3 percent as of March. Its market share at the end of 2010 was 7.8 percent. Tavares says that it is a fair assessment that there would be some risk unless they are able to ramp up. Most car manufacturers have suffered from parts shortages, particularly specialized electronics, since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

Tavares revealed that Nissan North America is significantly over its 25-day supply of vehicles to help it overcome a shortage of parts. During the March 11 earthquake, it had a 70-day supply of cars. He is expecting the company to reach 50 percent production in a few weeks time and full production by May or June, when the supply chain is capable of supporting an increase in production.

When the earthquake and tsunami hit Japan on March 11, Nissan had 45,000 more cars than last year. Tavares said that it provides enough cushion until production increases. He said the parts that lack supply had already been fixed and in some instances, they changed the source of the supply or the manufacturer fixed their facility.

Nissan is one automaker that gets it supplies from a single supplier to ensure cost and efficiency of the individual parts. Tavares believes that there will be no significant change in the practices of the industry due to shortage of parts.

Currently the second biggest automaker in Japan, Nissan Motors is aiming to restore normal production as deliveries from suppliers are expected by the middle of April although some of the parts may take some time to resume normal production.

The earthquake that hit the eastern coast of Japan damaged some assembly and parts factories in the northeastern region, triggering an industry-wide production loss of at least 400,000 vehicles so far in Japan.

According to analysts, this may have a ripple effect on foreign production and non-Japanese car makers will also suffer from shortage of their inventory in the coming months.

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