AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)03/24 Report--

Toyota announced Wednesday that seven production lines at five factories in Japan will stop production for a period of time from April 3 due to a decline in global orders and falling demand due to the spread of novel coronavirus, Kyodo news agency reported.

Toyota said the affected plants include Toyota Takaoka, Tsutsumi, Tahara and Miyada in Kyushu, as well as a Hamura plant run by Hino truck.

For the Chinese market and consumers, the shutdown of Japanese factories will also be affected, and Chinese Lexus consumers will take longer to pick up their cars in the future as Toyota imports all Lexus-branded models sold in China.

Among them, Toyota Kyushu Miyada plant will stop production from April 3 to 15. The factory mainly produces Lexus CT, ES, NX, UX, RX and other models, which are also imported to the Chinese market for sale.

Chinese consumers typically have to wait about three months before picking up their best-selling models, such as the ES, which may not be able to pick up on time because of the suspension of production at Toyota's Japanese plant.

As the spread of the epidemic led to a decline in global orders, a decline in demand and a shortage of parts and components, Toyota had to consider adjusting its capacity. Prior to this, Toyota Japanese factory employees infected with novel coronavirus case, but also sounded the alarm for the health of Toyota employees.

An employee at Toyota's Takaoka plant developed symptoms of fever on March 14 and tested positive for the coronavirus on March 19. Another male employee in his 20s also tested positive for novel coronavirus. The employee was examined on March 21 and confirmed on March 22. Both employees work on the same production line at the Takaoka plant, which Toyota will close from March 23 to March 25 to disinfect the workplace and consider further measures to prevent the virus from spreading.

Akio Toyoda said earlier that novel coronavirus has had a great impact on the production and sales of the global auto industry, but Japanese auto companies will make every effort to keep their factories in a normal state.

At present, Chinese factories have entered a stage of rapid recovery after the suspension of production, but they may be shut down for some time due to the spread of the epidemic in other overseas regions. Toyota has announced that it will begin to close all its plants in Europe this week, stop production at its North American plant for two weeks from the 23rd, and temporarily close its plants in the Philippines and Malaysia. Japanese plants have also decided to stop production within April, while production at Chinese plants can remain normal.

Toyota Group's global sales data in 2019 show that, including its Toyota, Lexus, Daihatsu and Hino brands, a total of 10.7421 million vehicles were sold worldwide, an increase of 1.4% over the same period last year. Of this total, Toyota and Lexus sold a total of 9.7143 million vehicles, up 1.8 per cent from a year earlier.

Toyota actually exported about 2.1 million vehicles in 2019, up 11.3% from the previous year and rising for three consecutive years. Exports to North America, Europe and China grew. Now affected by the novel coronavirus epidemic, domestic production will also be forced to stop.

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