Toyota suspends Japan factory production due to Covid-19 outbreak

Toyota suspended the night shift operation on Tuesday at one production line at its factory in central Japan due to an outbreak of Covid-19, after it suspended operations there also on Monday night.

The suspension comes as the Japanese carmaker seeks to boost production in earnest after Covid-19 lockdowns in China and a global chip shortage forced it to repeatedly scale back output in the April-June quarter, falling about 10% short of its initially planned target.

Sixteen workers at the Tsutsumi plant in Aichi Prefecture were infected with Covid-19, making it hard for the company to secure enough workers for operations, it said on Tuesday.

Output of about 660 vehicles would be affected by the suspension, a spokesperson told Reuters.

Toyota suspended night shift operations at a different factory for two days for the same reason in late July.

The world's largest carmaker by sales has stuck to its 9.7-million global production target for the year ending March 2023, saying output and sales are on path to recovery from this month onwards.