Toyota is cutting its February production by about 20 per cent due to chip shortages, the Nikkei newspaper reported Tuesday, though that output target is still up from a year earlier.
The world’s top-selling carmaker plans to assemble 700,000 units in February, down 200,000 from its original goal for the month, reported Nikkei without citing a source. That compares with 668,001 units Toyota produced in the same month a year earlier. A Toyota spokesperson declined to comment on the automaker’s future production targets.
The company is pushing to ramp up production to make up for lost output last year during the peak of supply chain disruptions. With a goal of churning out nine million vehicles for the fiscal year ending March, Toyota had announced plans to produce 800,000 vehicles this month, up from the number of units it shipped the same month a year earlier.
Parts and materials
At the same time, pandemic-induced supply chain disruptions are proving persistent. In mid-December, Japan's auto parts trade group warned that a dizzying number of problems are affecting procurement of parts and materials. Those included lingering production issues in southeast Asia, where rising coronavirus infections are once again impairing the region's output of semiconductors.
Toyota will suspend some production at its Tahara plant, in Aichi Prefecture in addition to other locations, the Nikkei reported. To meet its nine million car goal for the fiscal year, the carmaker would have to produce a record one million cars in March, according to the Nikkei. – Bloomberg