Toyota is aiming to restart production of curtailed models in December and is hoping to make up for lost units thanks to an increase in parts shipments from pandemic-hit suppliers.
The Japanese car manufacturer recently announced it will cut its production target for the financial year to end-March by 300,000 vehicles to 9 million units. This comes on the back of rising COVID-19 infections that slowed work at parts factories across Malaysia and Vietnam.
Reuters reports that Toyota has now asked suppliers to make up for lost production so it can build an additional 97,000 vehicles between December and the end of March 2022. Suppliers will apparently consider operating additional weekend shifts to meet the automaker’s request.
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In a statement, a Toyota spokesperson said “nothing has yet been decided about production plans beyond November.”
However, Takashi Miyao, a researcher from automotive industry consultant Carnorama, says the situation is improving, thus allowing Toyota to target this increase in production: “COVID infection rates in Southeast Asia are dropping dramatically and people’s concerns about production risk are easing. It looks like the industry is emerging from a tunnel.”
In February, Toyota said it was planning to build a record 9.2 million vehicles worldwide this year, a 2 per cent increase over the record number of vehicles it built in 2019.
Toyota had managed to avoid some of the semiconductor shortage disruptions of its rivals after strengthening its supply chain following Japan’s deadly 2011 earthquake. However, it too was eventually affected by the industry-wide supply issues.
