Toyota Motor lowers October output target by about 50,000 vehicles

TOKYO (Reuters) -Toyota Motor Corp on Friday lowered its October production target by about 50,000 to about 750,000 vehicles because of a shortage of microchips.

The announcement comes about a week after the world’s largest automaker by sales released its production target of about 800,000 vehicles globally for the next month, deepening worries that the chip shortage will continue to stymie production in the second half of the financial year to March 31.

The Japanese automaker, however, on Friday said that its 9.7 million vehicle production target for the current financial year has not changed.

The company also said it will suspend production at some production lines in Japan for up to 10 days.

Toyota said on Thursday that its global vehicle output jumped by 44.3% year on year in August – the first increase since March – as the sector recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic and production capacity increased.

But it said the outlook remains uncertain owing to the global chip shortage and continuing COVID-19 outbreaks.

(Reporting by Satoshi SugiyamaEditing by Jason Neely and David Goodman)