NEW YORK--Toyota Motor Corp. said April 19 that it will expand a cut in production to 70 percent at its factories in North America due to disruptions in supply chains from Japan.
NEW YORK--Toyota Motor Corp. said April 19 that it will expand a cut in production to 70 percent at its factories in North America due to disruptions in supply chains from Japan.
The cut will bring the total of lost production to 150,000 units in the United States, Canada and Mexico since the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake wreaked havoc on parts suppliers in northeastern Japan.
The 70 percent cut will be conducted at all of Toyota's 13 assembly and component factories and at the production line of the Camry model at the allied Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. factory in Indiana from April 26 to June 3.
Toyota said it will close the factories on Mondays and Fridays and halve production Tuesdays through Thursdays.
A Toyota official in charge of U.S. sales said the automaker would have no choice but to revise down its sales target in the United States for this year from about 1.9 million.
Toyota had announced earlier this month that it will shut down production for up to five days in North America between April 15 and April 25. The carmaker was forced to further cut production for a longer period as supplies of parts and components from Japan have not improved.
Toyota said it will provide training sessions for workers when production lines are closed, instead of having layoffs.
If Toyota is forced to reduce output longer than expected, it could face a shortage of inventory for the U.S. market because about 70 percent of vehicles marketed in the United States are manufactured in North America.
Its U.S. arm has an inventory of Toyota models equivalent to about 50 days and Lexus models for about 30 days.
The popular hybid model Prius, which is manufactured only in Japan, has only nine to 10 days of inventory.