TOKYO – Toyota Motor Corp., which until now has largely skirted the supply chain woes that hampered rivals worldwide, will slash global output some 40 percent in September as it finally feels the bite of the pandemic and the global shortage of automotive microchips.
In announcing the hit on Thursday, Toyota blamed the suspensions on bottlenecks in worldwide chip supplies and the outbreak of the COVID-19 delta variant in Southeast Asia.
The sweeping shutdowns, which begin in August and run through the end of September, will hammer Toyota output in every major market -- Japan, the U.S., Europe, China and Asia.