Toyota group production, sales outside Japan rise to record for February

TOKYO: Toyota Motor Corp said on Wednesday (Mar 30) its group, including Daihatsu and Hino Motors Ltd, produced and sold record-high vehicles for February in markets outside Japan despite a parts shortage triggered by the COVID-19 outbreak.

The group's overseas production in February was 531,183 vehicles, a 16 per cent increase from the same month last year, while sales was 620,360, a 5.2 per cent jump from the same period a year ago.

For the group as a whole, it produced 884,528 vehicles and sold 774,860 globally for the month. Global production went up by almost 11 per cent for February year-over-year but global sales slid 1.6 per cent.

Just Toyota alone exceeded its February global production target plan released a month earlier by almost 41,000 vehicles. But the level was below the year-ago period due to a parts supply shortage in North America due to COVID-19 and tight parts supply in Europe because of rising demand.

It faced tight semiconductor supplies in China, but the automaker said it had used semiconductors that were rendered surplus from a factory shutdown in January due to COVID-19.