Toyota ceases operations at all assembly plants in Japan due to system failure

TOKYO (Reuters) – Toyota Motor Corp. (7203.T) said it will suspend operations at all of its assembly plants in Japan from Tuesday afternoon due to a malfunction in its production system, which will likely halt domestic production for a year. The largest automaker in the world.

A Toyota spokesperson said the company was looking into the cause of the problem, adding that it was “not likely due to a cyberattack.” The spokesman added that the defect means its inability to request components.

Toyota suspended operations at 12 of its plants as of Tuesday morning, with two remaining online. All 14 workers will be suspended from work for the second shift on Tuesday, the spokesperson said, adding that the amount of lost production is not clear.

The 14 plants in total account for about a third of Toyota’s global production, according to Reuters calculations. Toyota is the largest automaker in the world in terms of sales.

The suspension comes as Toyota’s Japanese production has been on the upswing after a series of reduced production plans it blamed on a semiconductor shortage. Production in Japan rose 29% in the first half of the year, the first such increase in two years.

The average daily production in Japan for the Toyota brands, excluding Daihatsu and Hino, was about 13,500 vehicles in the first half, based on Reuters calculations for working days excluding holidays.

Toyota operations were halted last year when one of its suppliers was hit by a cyberattack. The one-day outage caused the loss of nearly 13,000 vehicles in production.

The automaker pioneered just-in-time inventory management, which keeps costs down but also means that any disruption in the logistical chain can jeopardize production.

While the cause of the glitch wasn’t clear, Japanese companies have been on the alert in recent days as some businesses and government offices have reported an avalanche of harassing phone calls.

The government said the calls were likely from China and related to Japan’s release of treated radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant in the Pacific Ocean.

Toyota shares fell 0.3% to 2,429 yen in early Tokyo trading.

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