Once again, Toyota has revised its expected production levels for June, three days after making a similar announcement. This further reduction will not alleviate the ongoing semiconductor shortage and growing customer waiting lists.
As of May 27, the company has cut an additional 50,000 vehicles from its June production plan, bringing it to 800,000 vehicles. The June target was initially reduced from around 900,000 cars to 850,000 cars on May 24.
While not as severe as the May outcome, where the current month’s production (at the time of writing this article) was first cut to 750,000 and then to 700,000 cars as the target on May 11, this latest cut of 50,000 units affects its Japanese plants. Sixteen lines across ten plants and/or body workshops will suspend production from June 6 to June 10.
The affected plants include Motomachi, Takaoka, Tsutsumi, Tahara, Miyata, Iwate, Miyagi Ohira, and Oyamazaki, in addition to the body workshops Inabe and Yoshiwara.
Production suspensions will affect vehicles for the Australian market such as Toyota Yaris Cross, GR Yaris, C-HR, Corolla, RAV4, Prado, LandCruiser 300, LandCruiser 70, and HiAce. Affected Lexus vehicles include LX, ES, RX, LS, NX, and LC.
Most of these vehicles are currently subject to long waiting times in Australia. On the Toyota side, it’s a minimum of a few months, with high-demand cars like the hybrid RAV4 and LandCruiser going well beyond 12 months. Lexus LX and NX also face waiting times of over 12 months.
Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) expressed its apologies for the repeated adjustments to production plans due to parts shortages caused by the spread of COVID-19, causing considerable inconvenience to customers awaiting vehicle delivery, suppliers, and other stakeholders.
TMC mentioned the recent announcement of the suspension of operations at some domestic plants in Japan in May and June, as well as the global production plan for June. Due to the impact of the lockdown in Shanghai, the company decided to suspend operations at some of its domestic plants during the week of June 6.
While the current supply of parts is challenging to estimate due to the ongoing lockdown in Shanghai, Toyota will do its best to minimize sudden production decreases while closely examining the supply of parts.
Toyota still expects to produce 9.7 million vehicles throughout the group in this Japanese fiscal year (ending March 31), below the initial projection of 11 million vehicles when it anticipated a global supply chain recovery this year.
The loss of around 1.3 million vehicles from the global allocation will send shockwaves across all key regions for Toyota, particularly in countries like Australia, where the company holds over 20% market share.
To its credit, Toyota has kept industry stakeholders fairly well informed about its inventory situation compared to other brands, and another localized update is expected in the near future. We will continue to keep you as informed as possible.
