More Toyota plants to go offline on parts shortage

TOKYO: Toyota said Wednesday that all its domestic parts plants would shut for a full day next week, expanding a production suspension that is set to be its longest since the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster.

Toyota said earlier this week that it would temporarily stop vehicle production in Japan due to a components shortage following an explosion at a supplier.

The world's top automaker said the assembly lines would stop for six days from February 8 due to a lack of components from affiliate Aichi Steel.

Overseas production would not be suspended.

Additionally, Toyota said Wednesday in a statement that production at its "directly owned and operated" plants in Japan that make parts and components would also stop on February 8 for one day.

The six-day domestic production suspension would be the longest for Toyota since one of 10 days following the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, said company spokesman Nicholas Maxfield.

Toyota publishes its nine-month financial results this week. It did not say if the temporary production shutdown would affect results in the current quarter.

Aichi Steel, which produces speciality steel products among other items, was hit by an explosion on January 8 which badly damaged parts of its production site.

It expects to return to full operation in March.

Toyota said Monday that it does not disclose its daily production plans, but the firm has said it produced 14,000 units a day in 2015.

The company, which surpassed Volkswagen in 2015 to keep the title of world's top-selling automaker, produced more than four million cars in Japan last year and over 10 million worldwide.