Toyota has announced that it will be closing all 12 of its factories in Japan for 11 days during February and March as it tries to decrease its overstock of unsold cars. Toyota has already announced that its factories will close for three days in January; this is the first time since 1993 that Toyota has halted production of its cars.
Toyota, as well as major US car manufacturers General Motors and Ford have seen a huge decline in sales over the last year, especially in the US, with Toyota suffering a 37% fall in December, worse than any other car manufacturer.
It is estimated that around 40% of the cars made in Toyota’s Japanese plants are sold in the US, and the current economic climate and the strength of the yen have all contributed to the latest sales figures.
Toyota’s sales in Japan have also been struggling, down 18% in December and nearly 7.4% down for the whole of 2008.
It was not all bad news for the struggling car manufacturer, as Toyota’s share rose by 1.3% on the stock market as the yen took a hit against the dollar.
2 Responses
I wonder how many cars wont be made during this time, it would be interesting to know.
Posted on January 19th, 2009 at 6:46 am
wonder if production started again after 11 days ummm
Posted on February 24th, 2009 at 4:18 am
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