TOKYO (Thomson Financial) - Japan's Toyota Motor Corp said Monday production of around 55,000 vehicles has been affected as a result of a temporary shutdown in its operations in the wake of last week's powerful earthquake.
Damage from the quake caused some parts suppliers, including Riken Corp to halt output of key engine components.
This in turn prompted Toyota to suspend operations at all of its 12 assembly plants across Japan.
Toyota will restart some of its assembly lines on Tuesday, Toyota Motor President Katsuaki Watanabe told a news conference.
'By today, the earthquake had impacted the assembly of 46,000 vehicles, about 40 percent of which were for sale in Japan and the other 60 percent for export. And as part of our production capacity will still be suspended tomorrow, the affected volume would amount to 55,000 by tomorrow,' he said.
Toyota's Tsutsumi plant, which makes the Prius hybrid car, will remain shut Tuesday until an unspecified time, while Toyota Auto Body Co, Toyota's assembly arm, will take over some of the Tsutsumi plant's Prius production, starting Tuesday, Toyota Motor Executive Vice President Takeshi Uchiyama said.
Toyota executives were speaking at the company's regular mid-year press conference here.
The lack of supply from Riken forced all Japanese car makers, including Nissan Motor Co and Honda Motor Co, to suspend at least part of their production here last week.
Riken resumed Monday morning part of its production at its flagship plant in the quake-hit city of Kashiwazaki, rolling out piston rings, seal rings and cam shafts 'almost at our regular pace,' the company said in a statement earlier Monday.
Asked whether Toyota may consider reviewing its so-called 'just-in-time' production system, which keeps Toyota's inventory levels low by using supplies from outside, in light of the latest production halt, Watanabe said the company still believes in the efficiency of the system.
'We should not fear a production halt. How fast we react is important as we did this time by sending in staff to check on Riken's plant. It may be our next step to review infrastructure,' he said.
On profit targets, Toyota aims to keep its 10 percent operating profit margin for the medium to long term, Watanabe said, dismissing an analyst's view that Toyota should aim higher for the longer term after achieving a 9.7 percent profit margin last fiscal year.
The Toyota president said the car maker will concentrate on the use of its profits earned each year on research and development of products and manufacturing systems for the so-called BRIC countries and other emerging markets where it aims to introduce low-priced, yet profitable passenger cars as well as competitive commercial vehicles.
The BRIC countries are Brazil, Russia, India and China
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