Toyota resumes production at domestic plants

Tokyo, Feb 15: Japanese auto giant Toyota Motor on Monday resumed production at its domestic plants after a week-long suspension of operations due to a shortage in steel, caused by an accident in a subsidiary’s factory.

In a statement, the company confirmed that “production resumed as scheduled” and thanked the “understanding and cooperation of our suppliers, dealers, customers, and everyone else affected by this incident,” EFE news reported.

All assembly lines of the 16 Toyota factories in Japan, as well as other component plants of the company, stopped operations on February 8, affecting production in its subsidiaries Hino, Daihatsu and Lexus.

It has been estimated that the weeklong suspension led the global leader in car manufacturing to stop production of between 70,000 and 80,000 cars.

While presenting its latest half-year results earlier this month, Toyota had acknowledged that the temporary slowdown of domestic production, which accounts for around 50 percent of the total, could have some impact on its annual accounts.

The suspension, the first nationwide since the earthquake and the tsunami of 2011, was due to an explosion on January 8 in one of its subsidiary plant Aichi Steel, which manufactures material for automobile components. (IANS)