Toyota Motor Corp. said on Wednesday its group, including Daihatsu Motor Co. and Hino Motors Ltd., produced and sold a record-high number of 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% increase from the same month last year, while sales totaled 620,360, a 5.2% 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% for February year-over-year but global sales slid 1.6%.
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 supply levels in China, but the automaker said it had used semiconductors that were rendered surplus from a factory shutdown in January due to COVID-19.