Toyota Motor faces semiconductor shortage once again, reports Reuters Tuesday, May 24. The Japanese manufacturer will have to close several production lines in all of these factories present on the Japanese archipelago.
More than half of production lines shut down
Toyota is forced to suspend production of its cars for five days, from May 25 to June 3, due to shortages of semiconductors. In total, this represents a decrease in production of approximately 100,000 vehicles. The manufacturer expects to be able to manufacture 850,000 vehicles per month on average until August.
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In all, sixteen production lines were shut down, spread over ten Japanese sites of the manufacturer. The four Toyota factories located abroad are not affected. This interruption remains significant because the firm has a total of 28 production lines on all of its sites.
In a press release, the company explains that “ the shortage of semiconductors, resulting from covid-19 and other factors, makes it difficult to project, but we will continue to make every effort to deliver the cars to our customers as soon as possible. The company says it can maintain its target of 9.7 million cars sold worldwide by March 2023.
Toyota is dependent on its dependence on Japan
Toyota had already had to interrupt its factories during the summer of 2021, which had led to a drop in production in Japan by 40%, or 80,000 fewer vehicles. The car giant is very dependent on its local sites. To cope with the shortage of semiconductors, Japan had also encouraged more local production in November. The government has notably invested 8.82 billion dollars in the construction of a factory for TSMC, a Taiwanese chipmaker, in the south of the country.
Manufacturers like Stellantis are considering other strategies to limit the risk of shortages. The automotive group wants to set up an agreement with the South Korean Samsung to create a production site dedicated to electric car batteries. This will be established in the United States to overcome the supply difficulties affecting Asia in particular. Hyundai also plans to set up a factory on American soil, which will produce, in addition to batteries, electric vehicles. Faced with difficulties, Toyota could be led to draw inspiration from its competitors by approaching future areas of semiconductor production.