Toyota cuts production due to Covid lockdown in Shanghai

Toyota says it will suspend operations at more production lines at its factories in Japan this month due to the coronavirus lockdown in Shanghai.

The firm says the production halt will come into effect on Monday and stay in place until of end of next week.

It is the latest big car maker to announce that it is being impacted by the Covid-19 measures in China.

Meanwhile, Tesla has reportedly halted most production at its Shanghai plant due to problems with sourcing parts.

“Due to the impact of the semiconductor shortage, we announced our revised production plan for May,” Toyota said in a statement.

“However, as a result of the lockdown in Shanghai, China, we have decided to additionally suspend operations of 14 lines at 8 plants in Japan from 16 May  (Mon) to 21 May (Sat),” it added.

The company previously said it planned to produce around 750,000 vehicles globally this month but said it had now cut that forecast by about 50,000 due to the lockdown.

Also on Wednesday, Toyota revealed that its quarterly profit had slumped by a third as it felt the impact of production disruptions caused by a global shortage of computer chips and China’s Covid-19 restrictions.

The world’s biggest car maker by sales posted an operating profit of 463.8 billion yen (US $3.56billion; £2.9bn) for the three months to the end of March, well below market expectations.

The company’s shares were around 4.5% lower in Wednesday afternoon trade on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Toyota’s announcements came as Shanghai is in its sixth week of an intensifying lockdown that has made it increasingly difficult for manufacturers to operate amid tough restrictions on the movement of people and materials.

It is the latest example of a major car maker being forced to cut back production as a result of the lockdown in Shanghai.

Tesla has halted most of its production at its plant in the city due to problems securing parts for its electric vehicles, according to Reuters, citing an internal memo.

On Tuesday, the company planned to manufacture fewer than 200 vehicles at its factory in the city, the news agency said.

That would be far below production of around 1,200 vehicles a day Tesla’s Shanghai plant had seen shortly after reopening last month following a 22-day closure.

Meanwhile, the electric car maker’s sales in China had already slumped by 98% in April from a month earlier, data released by the China Passenger Car Association showed.

However, during a virtual appearance at the FT Future of the Car 2022 conference on Tuesday Tesla’s boss Elon Musk said China’s lockdown measures would not be “a significant issue in the coming weeks”.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request from the BBC for comment.