Crippling Australian car strike ends

A strike at one supplier hit three major manufacturers

Australian car makers have restarted their production lines for the first time, after the end of a strike at a components firm that brought the country's autmotive industry to a halt.

The car firms said they would be able to boost output in the next few weeks in order to make up for lost production, but there will be delays in some export orders.

Overall, the 14-day strike at Tristar Steering and Suspension Australia will cost the industry about A$400m (£144m; $205m).

"You'll see it show up in slightly weaker manufacturing exports for August, but that will be made up over the rest of the quarter," said Tony Meer, an economist at Deutsche Bank .

"But from a reputational point of view, it never does Australia well to have these sort of events because we want tobe seen as a reliable source of product."

Back to work

About 350 Tristar workers have returned to work after a strike that caused three of Australia's four car makers - units of General Motors, Ford Motor and Mitsubishi - to run out of steering parts.

Mitsubishi said that a shipment of 250 Magna models to the Middle East this month will be 100 short because of the strike.

The main point of contention was protection of Tristar workers' entitlements in the event of the company going out of business.

Tristar has now agreed to protect pension and other entitlements in the event of failure.

The strike was an embarrassment to the Australian government, which has claimed in recent years that the country's shoddy record on labour relations had been dramatically improved.

The dispute also highlighted the vulnerability of manufacturers to a steady supply of parts as the industry has pared its inventory levels to the bare minimum.