Toyota production up 9% in January even as chip pain still lingers

Japanese carmaker still undershoots production target but fares noticeably better than rivals Nissan and Honda

Toyota saw production jump by almost 9 per cent in January despite ongoing issues with chip supplies

Toyota Motor boosted its global vehicle production by 9 per cent in January, it said on Monday, its first increase in two months even as the car maker continued to feel the strain from global chip shortages.

The company, which is the world's largest automaker by volume, and other car manufacturers are still grappling with tight supplies of chips, although the constraint has eased from a year earlier, when pandemic-related lockdowns sharply hit supplies of semiconductors.

Toyota said it produced 689,090 vehicles globally in January, an 8.8 per cent increase from the same month last year and just short of the 700,000 vehicles it previously said it expected to produce for the month.

That does not include production from its Daihatsu and Hino Motors units.

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Global sales slipped 5.6 per cent to 709,870 vehicles, Toyota said, reflecting the continued impact of the chip shortage.

Smaller rival Nissan Motor said its January production fell by a quarter to 224,236 vehicles. Honda Motor said its output fell 21.7 per cent in January to 280,757 vehicles. – Reuters