AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)04/14 Report--

On April 12, Toyota announced to its major suppliers that global production would be cut to 700000 vehicles in May, according to the Nippon Keizai Shimbun. Affected by factors such as the spread of the epidemic and instability in the supply chain, Toyota will reduce production by about 10% to 700000 vehicles in May than previously planned, of which Toyota's domestic production in Japan will fall to 200000 vehicles. Overseas market production will be reduced by 100000 to 500000 vehicles. However, the production figure is still up from 670000 vehicles in May last year.

According to Toyota's previously announced production plan, Toyota is expected to produce about 2.8 million vehicles from April to June 2022. On March 11, a spokesman for Toyota of Japan said that Toyota plans to cut production capacity in Japan's domestic market by 20% within three months from April. To ease the pressure on suppliers caused by shortages of chips and other parts. Of these, capacity is expected to fall by 20 per cent to 150000 vehicles in April, by about 10 per cent to 100000 in May and by about 5 per cent to 50, 000 in June. After adjustment, Toyota's new production plan for April-June 2022 was reduced from 2.8 million to 2.5 million, a decrease of about 300000 vehicles compared with the original plan, but an increase of about 10 per cent from 2.26 million in April-June 2021. As for the reasons for the production reduction, a Toyota spokesman said at the time that one of the reasons for the production reduction was to reduce the burden on suppliers, and the other was a serious shortage of chips and other parts due to tight supply chains. Toyota hopes to ensure that suppliers can steadily prepare equipment and personnel and give priority to safety and quality by reviewing the risks of production plans three months in advance.

According to statistics, new car sales in Japan in the 2021 fiscal year to the end of March this year were 4.2158 million, down 9 per cent from a year earlier and the lowest in 45 years, of which Toyota sales fell 9 per cent. For this year's market performance, according to Toyota Motor Group data, Toyota produced 1371887 vehicles worldwide from January to February this year, with global sales of 1453494 vehicles. Of these, Toyota produced 740996 vehicles worldwide in February, including 253258 in Japan's domestic market, up 4 per cent from a year earlier, and 487738 in overseas markets, up 15 per cent from a year earlier. In mid-February, Toyota suspended production at 11 production lines at eight factories in Japan, including the Wonmachi plant in Aichi Prefecture, due to an epidemic and semiconductor shortages. At that time, Toyota expected to reduce production of new cars at home and abroad by about 150000 vehicles than planned, with global production of about 700000 vehicles. However, judging from the above data, although Toyota was still deeply affected by the COVID-19 epidemic and chip shortage in February, production data from both Japan's local market and overseas markets showed an increasing trend, with global production nearly 41000 vehicles higher than originally planned. The auto industry is concerned that the main reason for the 4% year-on-year increase in production in Japan's local market in February this year may be related to the 7.3-magnitude earthquake in the waters near Fukushima in Japan on February 1 last year, due to large-scale power outages triggered by the earthquake. Production fell as a result of disruptions in auto parts supply in Japan, compared with a retaliatory increase in February this year.

As for Toyota's performance in the Chinese market, data show that from January to March this year, GAC Toyota's cumulative production was 245461 vehicles, an increase of 28.1% over the same period last year, and cumulative sales were 247006 vehicles, an increase of 23.4% over the same period last year. Among them, Camry series sales were 27211, Leiling series sales were 20032, and Weilanda series sales were 14344, while FAW Toyota's cumulative retail sales from January to March this year were 159397 units, down 18.3% from the same period last year. The main reason for the decline is that sales plummeted on January 13 this year when FAW Toyota announced the suspension of production at its Tianjin plant due to the impact of the epidemic. Toyota sold 148800 new cars in China in January 2022, down 21.5% from a year earlier, according to relevant data. Among them, Guangzhou Auto Toyota's January sales rose 0.8 per cent to 87500 vehicles from a year earlier, while FAW Toyota fell 46.0 per cent to 41000 vehicles, while Lexus, an imported luxury brand, sold only 17500 vehicles in January, down 27.9 per cent from a year earlier.

At present, the entire automobile industry is facing rising raw material prices, tight parts supply chain and chip shortage. in this environment, the production capacity of a number of car companies has been affected, and some have even directly announced stoppage or production cuts. As early as February this year, when Toyota announced its results, Toyota said: "We do not expect the shortage of chip supply to be resolved soon and may continue into the next fiscal year." As Toyota adjusts global production in May again, it means that Toyota's production plans for 2.5 million vehicles from April to June 2022 may be affected again.

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