OSAKA (Bloomberg) -- Toyota Motor Corp., the world's largest carmaker, will resume output at all of its factories in Japan on April 18 after halting production following the nation's record earthquake last month.
Toyota will reopen production at 50 percent of full operating capacity and continue manufacturing through April 27, said Paul Nolasco, a spokesman for the Toyota City, Japan-based carmaker.
The company hasn't decided on a production plan after Japan's Golden Week holidays in early May, Nolasco said.
The carmaker closed most of its domestic plants after the 9-magnitude earthquake and tsunami in Japan on March 11 damaged parts factories and crippled a nuclear power plant, causing power shortages. Toyota had previously estimated the plants would reopen April 14.
Toyota may lose as much as 500,000 units of production because of the natural disaster at a cost of at least 100 billion yen ($1.2 billion) for the financial year that ended March 31, according to Koji Endo, an analyst at Advanced Research Japan in Tokyo.
Toyota had said it lost 140,000 units of production from March 14 to March 26 after closing 18 factories, citing a shortage of electronic parts, rubber and plastics. The carmaker resumed output of three models at two factories on March 28, prioritizing hybrids including the Prius. Toyota built 3.28 million cars in Japan in 2010.
