Toyota Motor Corp, Japan’s biggest carmaker, said it is working with parts makers to restore supplies of 30 types of components still affected by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
After the disaster, 659 facilities mostly belonging to second and lower-tier suppliers were damaged, senior managing director Yasumori Ihara said yesterday at the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Toyota City, Japan. The automaker has a team of 150 investigators working to reduce the shortage of parts, he said.
The company has reduced the number of critical parts in short supply, mostly semiconductor and rubber materials from 500 firms at the end of March, Ihara said.
Photo: Reuters
Toyota said last week it expects profit to fall 31 percent to ¥280 billion (US$3.5 billion) this fiscal year as damage to suppliers limits car production and the strong yen erodes earnings from exports. Global vehicle sales may drop to 7.24 million this fiscal year from 7.308 million last year, the company said on Friday last week.
Toyota will return to normal production at its North American factories in September, group vice president for US sales Bob Carter said on Thursday. The carmaker’s plants are running at 70 percent of planned levels this month, up from 50 percent in April and last month.
The company will pursue its long-term growth strategy in developed and emerging markets as outlined in a plan released two days before the March 11 earthquake, even as it works to recover operations, Toyota president Akio Toyoda said yesterday.
That includes developing next-generation hybrid, fuel-cell and electric cars, as well as introducing new compact and hybrid models in emerging markets, he said.
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