Toyota Motor Corp. said Friday all 28 production lines at its 14 plants in Japan will return to normal for the first time in seven months as a supply crunch eases, with its global output in December expected to reach 800,000 vehicles, a record high for the month.
The output forecast — about 300,000 units in Japan and 500,000 units overseas — compares with about 760,000 in December last year.
Production has been able to return to normal as a parts shortage in Southeast Asia brought on by the coronavirus pandemic has been improving. But Toyota kept its plan of producing 9 million vehicles globally in the business year through March.
"We will continue our efforts to strengthen our supply chain with our suppliers and will do everything we can to ensure we deliver as many cars to our customers as quickly as possible," the world's top-selling automaker said in a press release.
It also expects a record output of 850,000 to 900,000 units in November. For this month, Toyota had said its global output would fall by up to 150,000 units, from its initial plan of around 1 million.
But until now the number of vehicles likely to be produced in December was unavailable.
Many automakers have been hit hard by the global semiconductor supply crunch and other parts shortages caused by the pandemic.
The Japanese automaker was forced to drastically cut production, especially in September, when its worldwide output fell 39% from a year earlier, while that in Japan plunged 55%.
Its global production for October is also expected to be about 30% lower than the previous year.