Output to return to normal by December, says Toyota

via onlineautobrochure.com

Till then, domestic factories to continue working at volumes equivalent to half of original plans.

Toyota Motor Corp has said it could take until the end of the year before production is fully recovered to levels before the massive earthquake and tsunami hit northeast Japan on March 11, disrupting the supply of key parts.

In the clearest forecast yet of how long it would take for the Japanese auto industry to recover, Toyota said output would start picking up in July in Japan and around August overseas, with a complete recovery expected in November or December.

Until then, Toyota’s domestic factories will continue to work at volumes equivalent to half of original plans, and at an average 40 per cent outside Japan, the world’s biggest automaker said.

“With this many aftershocks, including one last night, we’ve seen some of the recovery work thrown back to square one many, many times,” President Akio Toyoda told a hastily called news conference in Tokyo yesterday.

“In that sense, it’s difficult to say what the impact on production volumes or earnings will be.”

The news from Toyota came just hours after Japan’s Renesas Electronics Corp, a major supplier of chips to the auto industry, said it would resume operations at a damaged factory north of Tokyo on June 15 — a few weeks ahead of schedule — an easing of a key bottleneck for car makers. Continue reading here.