Toyota slashes global output for November, but confirms full-year objective

Last week Toyota Motor Corp (7203) reduced its planned global production for November by 15% because of ongoing chip shortages. Still, the company signaled that it would increase output from December by sticking to its latest full-year production objective.

In a press release, the Japanese company said it would produce between 100,000 and 150,000 fewer vehicles next month compared to what it had planned.

The reduction followed curtailed production in September and October as supplies of components from plants in Malaysia and Vietnam were disrupted due to rising COVID-19 cases, which forced the auto maker to cut its production objective for the year to March 31st by 300,000 vehicles to 9 million units.

Toyota Motor Corp confirmed that forecast, which means it will need to increase production for the remainder of the business year, while relying on a drop in infection rates in Southeast Asia.

According to a spokesperson for the Japanese auto maker, the total reduction in output from September through November will be by about 910,000 vehicles.

“I can’t predict what is going to happen, but I think we are through the worst period of lower production risks,” Kazunari Kumakura, an executive at Toyota, was quoted as saying by Reuters.

The shares of Toyota Motor Corp closed lower for the third time in the past ten trading sessions in Tokyo on Tuesday. The stock went down 0.49% (JPY 10.0) to JPY 2,030.0, after touching an intraday low at JPY 2,010.5. The latter has been a price level not seen since October 15th (JPY 1,974.5).