Toyota plant shutdown happened during system update, sources say
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The full-day outage at its domestic plants could be equivalent to US$356 million (S$481 million) in revenue.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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TOKYO - A malfunction that shut down all of Toyota Motor’s plants in Japan on Tuesday happened during an update of the automaker’s parts ordering system, two people with knowledge of the matter said.
The world’s top-selling automaker has not given any details of what went wrong to cause the closure, and a company spokesman on Wednesday was unable to say whether the glitch happened during a system update.
Toyota, which restarted operations at its Japanese assembly plants
The company said its global sales had risen 8 per cent in July from the same month a year earlier to a record 859,506 vehicles. It also reported a 15 per cent increase in global production in that month.
The automaker has now posted year-on-year increases in global sales for six straight months, and production increases for seven, highlighting its recovery from last year’s supply chain snarl ups and Covid-19 containment measures.
Both figures include Toyota’s Lexus luxury brand.
Sales in China fell 15 per cent in July, contrasting with stronger sales in Japan, the United States and Europe. Domestic sales rose 35 per cent and those in the US increased by 8 per cent.
Numbers for August, which will not be available until next month, are likely to be hit by Tuesday’s output suspension.
Toyota’s global production is likely to reach around 10.2 million vehicles in 2023, topping 10 million for the first time, Nikkei reported late on Wednesday. Toyota declined to comment on the projection.
The company continues to investigate the cause of Tuesday’s plant malfunction, but has said it was not due to a cyber attack. REUTERS
