Toyota Motor Corp. may expand production outside Japan as the yen's gains on currency markets reduce earnings.
"We are struggling," Chief Financial Officer Satoshi Ozawa said Monday in an interview at the automaker's factory in Ovar, Portugal. "We are facing a difficult time. We have to reduce our production costs to compensate for the currency situation," and that may involve shifting manufacturing from the home market of Japan "to some extent."
The euro's decline since April to a decade low against the yen this month is reducing export earnings at the carmaker and competitors. Carlos Ghosn, chief executive officer of Nissan Motor Co., said Oct. 6 that Japan may endure a hollowing-out of its industrial base should the government fail to take steps to counter the yen's gains.
Toyota's production locations abroad as of the end of March included 50 sites in 26 countries and regions, according to the company's website. The company said Oct. 6 it is hiring more than 100 people at its European regional headquarters in Brussels for research and development, sales and administration.
Ozawa was at the plant in Ovar for its 40th anniversary and to see its 100,000th Dyna truck roll off the assembly line Monday. The factory also makes the Hiace van.