Toyota Motor Corp. said Wednesday its domestic output in May fell 28.5 percent from a year earlier to 144,204 vehicles, declining for the third straight month due to a global chip shortage and a parts supply crunch caused by a COVID-19 lockdown in Shanghai.
The rate of decline was the biggest since January when domestic output fell 32.2 percent from the previous year, the major Japanese automaker said.
Toyota had to suspend operations at some of its factories in Japan because the lockdown had made it difficult to procure parts.
Toyota said its global output in May fell 5.3 percent from a year earlier to 634,940 units, falling short of its production target of about 700,000 vehicles after its production in South Africa was affected by flooding.
Although the Shanghai lockdown was lifted on June 1, Toyota’s production continues to be affected by the strain on parts supply from the Chinese city.
Meanwhile, rivals Nissan Motor Co. and Honda Motor Co. increased domestic production significantly in May from a year earlier as they ramped up operations at their factories.
Nissan’s domestic output jumped 77.9 percent to 26,799 units as a new model of its Note compact car boosted sales. Honda saw its output rise 57.7 percent to 37,285 vehicles, showing a sharp rebound from a year ago when domestic production decreased sharply.
In contrast, Honda’s global output was down 14.5 percent to 244,368 units, as it was strongly impacted by the chip shortage and Shanghai’s lockdown.
Despite the chip shortage, the global output of Nissan was up 1.7 percent to 231,732 cars, the first rise in 11 months, thanks to robust domestic production.
Total domestic production by eight major Japanese automakers, including Toyota, Nissan and Honda, fell 16.0 percent in May to 396,433 vehicles amid the global parts crunch, according to industry data.
Their total global output fell 0.2 percent to 1.62 million units.
