Toyota Motor Corp. said Wednesday its global output dropped 16.2% in August from a year earlier to 531,448 units, the first fall in a year, due to parts shortages amid the spread of COVID-19 in Southeast Asia and a semiconductor crunch.
Toyota has already announced plans to curb production in September and October, clouding the outlook for an auto sector that has staged a strong recovery in sales in key markets including China and the United States.
The world's top-selling automaker has trimmed its output outlook for fiscal 2021 through next March to 9 million units, down 300,000 from its initial plan.