TOKYO (Reuters) – Toyota Tsusho Corp, part of the Toyota group, does not expect Toyota Motor Corp to meet its target to produce a record 9.7 million vehicles worldwide this business year, an executive at the trading firm said on Friday.
The comment is likely to add to speculation among analysts and investors that the world’s biggest automaker will have to slash its production goal for the year to March 2023.
Hideyuki Iwamoto, chief financial officer (CFO) at Toyota Tsusho Corp, told an earnings news conference he expected Toyota Motor’s production to come in below target based on the automaker’s monthly production results and unofficial announcements on future production.
“We haven’t received an unofficial announcement showing (Toyota Motor) can produce 9.7 million so we are being a little conservative with our estimate while looking at the unofficial announcements we have received,” Iwamoto said.
Toyota Motor did not have an immediate comment.
The Japanese automaker has so far maintained its full-year production goal, despite repeatedly scaling back output due to global semiconductor shortages and COVID-19 lockdowns in China that have thrown supply chains into disarray.
On Thursday, Toyota Motor said output for the April-June quarter had fallen 10% short of its initial plan.
It said on Friday output would be cut by 5,200 vehicles due to heavy rains in its home prefecture of Aichi and the surrounding area, which disrupted auto parts procurement.
(Reporting by Satoshi Sugiyama; Editing by Mark Potter)
