Toyota said output would start to pick up in July in Japan and around August overseas, with a complete recovery not until November or December.
“With many aftershocks, we’ve seen some of recovery work thrown back to square one many, many times,” President Akio Toyoda told reporters. “In that sense it’s difficult to say what the impact on production volumes or earnings will be.” Toyota has announced plans for production cuts in Japan, North America and China through June 3, and in Europe through end of May. It has said it would decide on plans beyond that as it gets updates on parts availability. By end of April, it will have lost production of 500,000 vehicles globally, compared with pre-quake plans, with 400,000 units of that in Japan, Toyota said.
While Toyota said it was sticking to its goal of keeping the tradition of “monozukuri”, or manufacturing, strong in Japan by producing 3.0-3.2 million vehicles domestically a year.
Toyota Executive Vice President Shinichi Sasaki said the automaker would encourage suppliers to consider setting up more production sites overseas to diversify risk.
In a sign of recovery, Japan’s Renesas Electronics Corp, a major supplier of chips to the auto industry, said it would resume operations at a damaged factory north of Tokyo on June 15, a few weeks ahead of schedule. Renesas has 40 per cent market share in automotive microcontroller chips. Its announcement was a “big factor” in Toyota’s gaining more clarity on when it could completely normalise its production.
