Toyota to suspend Japanese production
January 7, 2009 by Matt Brogan
Toyota will suspend production at its Japanese plants for 11 days in February and March following plunging US sales.
With car yards across the US full of unsold cars, and a 37-percent drop in sales for December, it seems the manufacturer has been left with little choice.
The sales slump is Toyota’s biggest in more than 25 years, and in the US at least, is worse than the declines seen at rivals General Motors and Ford.
“I never expected the crisis to spread this fast and leave this deep a scar,” said Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe today.
Toyota had already announced a three-day production stoppage for this month at its 12 directly operated Japanese plants (four car assembly plants and eight for engines, transmissions and other components).
A sweeping suspension of domestic production is almost unprecedented with the last halt in production, back in 1993, only lasting a day following a rise in the Yen seeing a sales crimp off shore.
Japanese-built cars make up around 40-percent of Toyota’s volume in the United States, where industry wide sales dropped 18-percent last year to their lowest levels since 1992.
But it’s not just Toyota who are suffering at home in Japan. Rivals Honda and Nissan have also cut output plans by at least 200,000 vehicles for the year ending March 31, and analysts expect further adjustments before then.
Toyota does not disclose the number of vehicles affected by production stoppages. Together, the four Japanese assembly plants built an average 130,000 vehicles a month in 2007, according to the latest available data.
“For the stock market to re-evaluate this sector, there are two prerequisites: the end of negative news flow and an outlook for a return to the black in the next business year,” Merrill Lynch auto analyst Koichi Sugimoto wrote in a client note.”In that respect, we’d have to say the (US sales) results were disappointing.”
On Monday, data showed Toyota’s Japan sales slid 18-percent in December, and were down 7.4-percent for 2008. Auto industry executives have warned that 2009 will be difficult and unpredictable.
“I’d like to believe that we’ll hit bottom (for the US economy) some time this year,” Toyota’s Watanabe said. “But if you look at the automobile market now, it’s very, very tough. We need to proceed with the assumption that this situation could continue.”
Toyota plans to turn the 11 days in February and March into a paid company holiday, a spokesman said.
Print it: 
CA, you should have probably also mentioned Toyota recently posting its very first operating loss in it’s 80 year history.
Ivory Towers are a crumbling………….
oh what a feeling…….
Eat your heart ou Dingo “The sales slump is Toyota’s biggest in more than 25 years, and in the US at least, is worse than the declines seen at rivals General Motors and Ford”. Oh what a feeling now then!!
Guess you’ve no comments now.
Yesterday the headline was
“Toyota record sales defy global trends”
Today sales are “plunging”
Which one is it?
Evening Cupid………
quote “The sales slump is Toyota’s biggest in more than 25 years, and in the US at least, is worse than the declines seen at rivals General Motors and Ford.”
See what happens to braggers Dingo………….This is just the top of the slide for Toyota in 2009 ,there on their way down !
Toyota are posting their first loss/ivory towers crumbling etc. Just remember that this is their FIRST loss, Ford and GM have been losing money for god knows how many years. Toyota will be around for years after Ford and GM have either hit the wall or gone Government owned. By the way I’m not a Toyota Fanboy, just stating the facts.
Can someone give me the crystal ball that some of you seem to be getting your info from ?
Quote “Toyota will be around for years after Ford and GM have either hit the wall or gone Government owned.”
You know this for a fact how ????????? Its an opinion !
Toyota have made a loss,Fact! Throw as many “buts”in there as you like !
Pity that we have right hand drive cars – they could send all of the excess of US cars over here and we could buy them up cheap. Perhaps a new Camry for $10000. One way to gid rid of them.
BM, basic maths will tell you that a company which has been making losses for years won’t last as long as a company which has been constantly making profits and now posts its’ first loss. Toyota could buy up Ford and GM with the cash they have in the bank and still have change left over. That is a well known fact, even if you personally didn’t know it. GM and Ford live from one month to the next, fact. I thought it was pretty obvious economics.
i should have suffixed my first post with
the fact that the big T has posted one loss over a business year in 80 odd trading years is frankly staggering.
ivory jokes aside, they are truly business masters in my book.
MR2, the losses incured by the D3 are predominately from the ludicrous wages, retirement and health care plans enforced upont them by the UAW. Soemthing that the southern state auto makers haven’t had to endure.
In terms of people saying that Ford & GM build the wrong cars for the climate, I find it amusing that the new F truck has gone against the trend, and Toyota who (so we get told over here) are able to read the market and build what the public want, have a carpark in the US of 9 SUV/Pickup vs 8 passenger/ hybrid vehicles has reported their first loss the very same year (in a long long over twenty year period) that passenger vehicles outsold SUV’s.
Yet both GM & Ford saw increased sales numbers in Dec.
Interesting bunch of facts that can be split many ways to give many different points of view, No????
For those wondering…
Toyota AUSTRALIA posted Excellent results, As we are not so directly affected by the credit crunch (although read the papers and they’ll tell you otherwise)
So another country being down on sales Will of course affect the plants, wich is why they are slowing production. Toyota are not however stopping any of the major projects.. New Prius (youll see the official car at the Detroit Motor show shortly) and the New Prado! both being released this year! Unlike some of the american counterparts ditching a sale ready car before its released!
Im Sure youll see in the not so distant future toyota back on track for profits again as they produce the cars they need to make and not too many of them! The down turn happend extremely quickly and to evaluate how many cars they need to produce would be impossible at the drop of a hat.
The long and short of it is that its buisness, and sometimes youve got to make sacrifices to ensure future survival instead of clutching onto straws and running up debt.
Mister Two, what is going to happen to GM and Ford is the opinion,I thought I made that obvious!
A new Prius……….mmmmmmm thats going to pull them out of the s..t and a Prado ? Now that’s impressive! All hang on to our hats with anticipation for that to come out ! More mind numbing boring cars .
If Toyota didnt do such a great job on marketing and they had to rely on the looks of their products I doubt they would be where they are today! Good on them for that !
Their the King in marketing just like Macdonalds…..yuk!
Where are all the Toyota fanzies now ? ;)
Hahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahaha
How the mighty are crumbling….
Toyota losing billions, now suspending production, looks like they are train crash waiting to happen
But what have Toyota been doing with the money that they have been making over the years? You would have thought that they would have atleast spent some of it on:
Improving the looks performance of their cars.in an attempt to make them more appealing to a wider demographic such as car enthusiasts.
Make them better value for money. There are some cars win Toyotas range such as the Corolla which used to be the Benchmark in its class but now there are so many more better alternatives/options – such as the VW Golf
Make them more technologically advanced. That is actually be the first to create or introduce an all new safety feature instead of copying BMW or Mercedes Benz.
Instead of wasting BILLIONS of dollars being an also ran in F1.
That way they wouldn’t have to rely aso much on thre smoke and mirrors they use in their advertising campaigns.
Yes ford and GM are in trouble but at least in regards to Ford and Holden [the local market] at least they have:
Spent more on Research and Development.
Introduced more “Firsts’ on an Aussie built car.
Designed and Created more Attention Grabbing Concept Cars
and won more Awards than Toyota have
Both of them have also been more successful in Australian motorsport than Toyota.
They say once you lose focus of your “bread and butter” markets – that is the product that you are essentially known for.. you will start to experience problems.
And in a wayt Toyota have lost focus. The car on which their reputation is built on is the Corolla [makes sense its their biggest seller in oz].
Whereas in the past those looking for a small hatchback would often head straight for their local Toyota dealer and order a Corolla without even considering any other manufacturers becasue the Corolla WAS so much better than the competition
But now the competition have released a range of new small cars in the same class as the Corolla which are better value for money as they have equally as good [if not better] performance; safety; fuel efficiency; reliability; build quality; standard features etc as the Corolla does.
Which is why companies such as VW and Mazda for example have steadily made their way up the sales ladder.
The only real reason Corolla is still the best selling hatch is because almost 75% of em are rental cars.
Luckily for Toyota though ATM there is virtually nothing to comare to the Landcruiser however that is changing too
Reckless1 Says:
QUOTE…………….
January 7th, 2009 at 9:10 am
Yesterday the headline was
“Toyota record sales defy global trends”
Today sales are “plunging”
Which one is it?
…………………………………………………..
the headline yesterday was wrong.
the figures displayed in that article contradicted what the headline said
Toyota Have never done anything other than make boring cars! It is there bread and butter. There never the first to do anything! They have a HUGE market share in Australia why would they change anything? People Do walk in off the street and just buy another corolla, without driveing, just on faith, its what they do.
Andrew M, the headline wasnt wrong, Whilst sales in Australia where down a small amount it didnt go with the trends of the world. In that Whilst overall Toyotas sales where down a few percent, they increased there market share. So there proportion of cars they sold was growing!
Too many people very quick to say that they’re crumbleing and going to fail when Toyota have one of the best organised and managed motor companys in the world. If anyones going to come out ontop, who else would it be?
Tyson, please learn the difference between “there” and “their”, it would make your post much easier to read.
For you Bret, Of course…..
Tyson,
Ok techniclly speaking i worded my post wrong.
I should have really said the headline implied toyota wasnt being affected, yet the figures displayed in that very article showed a reasonable drop off in the last quarter, in some cases worse than other manufacturers