AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)05/24 Report--

The uncertainty of the general environment once again put Toyota into the situation of suspending production and reducing production. Toyota announced again on its website on May 24 that its production target for June would be cut by 100000 to 850000. Toyota said on its website that global production in June is expected to be about 850000 vehicles (of which about 250000 in the Japanese market and 600000 overseas) due to a shortage of spare parts caused by the spread of COVID-19. In addition, Toyota decided to suspend operations at some Japanese factories in May and June because of parts shortages caused by the closure of Shanghai. According to Toyota's latest shutdown plan, of a total of 28 production lines in Toyota's 14 factories in Japan, 16 production lines in 10 factories will be suspended from the end of this month (from May 25) to the beginning of June (until June 3). The models involved include Toyota Crown, bZ4X, C-HR, RAV4 and Lexus NX. The Takaoka plant, located in Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture, stopped production for the longest time. The plant stopped production from May 25 to May 27 and June 2 to 3 for a total of 5 days. Toyota car body Fujimoto plant has the shortest shutdown time, which is 1 day, while most other factories stop production in about 3 days.

As a result, Toyota produced an average of about 850000 vehicles a month from June to August this year, that is, a total of about 2.55 million vehicles from June to August this year, while the production target for fiscal year 2022 (April 2022 to March 2023) remains unchanged at about 9.7 million vehicles. Toyota stressed on its website that production in the coming months is still difficult to predict because of the spread of the coronavirus and a shortage of semiconductors, but will strive to deliver as many products as possible to customers as soon as possible.

According to the concern of the auto industry, this is the third time that Toyota has announced a shutdown or production cut in the past two months. On April 18, Toyota announced that it would stop production at several factories in Japan for several days in May, from May 9 to 28, two of which would stop production for six days. At the time, Toyota said it would cut global production by 10% to 750000 vehicles in May, of which Toyota's production in Japan would fall to 200000 and that in overseas markets would fall to 550000. On May 10th, Toyota announced that global production would be cut again to 700000 vehicles in May, and 14 production lines at a total of eight factories in Japan had also been suspended to varying degrees, with a maximum of six days. Toyota announced several shutdowns or production cuts due to the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic and supply chain instability and other factors. Many different degrees of production shutdowns also directly disrupted Toyota's production target and led it to lower its production target many times.

At present, due to the impact of the epidemic and supply chain shortages and many other uncertain factors, a number of Japanese car companies have been greatly affected in terms of production and marketing. On May 6th, the Japan Trade Promotion Agency (JETRO) said that according to the results of the latest survey conducted by the Shanghai Japanese Commerce & Industry Club, up to 60% (63%) of the Japanese enterprises in Shanghai have factories in a state of complete shutdown and are unable to carry out production at all, including enterprises with less than 30% capacity utilization (28%). As high as 90% (91%) of Japanese enterprises have been almost unable to carry out production since they were banned from Shanghai. The biggest reason for the shutdown of Japanese enterprises in Shanghai is the interruption of logistics caused by the closure of Shanghai. According to the auto industry, Toyota's global sales in fiscal year 2021 (April 2021-March 2022) were 10.38 million vehicles, an increase of 4.7% over the same period last year, of which Toyota and Lexus brands sold a total of 9.51 million vehicles, an increase of 4.7% over the same period last year. However, due to the impact of the epidemic and tight supply chain, Toyota experienced a "double decline" in production and sales in the Japanese local market in fiscal year 2021. Of these, Toyota's production in the Japanese market was 2.76 million, down 5.4 per cent from a year earlier, the lowest in nearly 45 years since 1976 (2.58 million), while local sales were 1.39 million, down 9.3 per cent from the previous year and falling for two consecutive years and the lowest since 2008.

However, in addition to this situation in Toyota, the production problems of a number of Japanese car companies are also in a serious state, also because the spread of COVID-19 's epidemic disrupted the supply chain of some auto parts and was eventually forced to stop production or cut production. New car sales in Japan in the 2021 fiscal year to the end of March were 4.21 million, the lowest in 45 years. Of Japan's eight major car companies, with the exception of Mitsubishi, the other seven showed a decline in sales, with Toyota down 9.3% and Mazda down 16%, the highest decline among Japan's eight car companies.

At present, a number of Japanese car companies are still facing greater challenges, mainly affected not only by the disruption of the supply chain caused by the epidemic, but also by the rising raw material prices of many kinds of electric vehicles caused by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. According to the latest statistics, new car sales in Japan fell 14.4% to 299620 in April from a year earlier, the 10th consecutive month of year-on-year decline. In addition, the sales performance of a number of Japanese car companies in China is also poor. Toyota's sales in China fell by 30.7% to 111100 vehicles in April from a year earlier, while Nissan's sales in China fell 46.0% to 69262 vehicles in April compared with the same period last year. Honda's sales in China fell 36.3 per cent to 95216 in April.

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