Toyota Mulls Consolidating Production Lines Overseas

Nagoya, Feb. 3 (Jiji Press)--Toyota Motor Corp. <7203> is
considering consolidating its production lines mainly in North America and
Europe in response to falling vehicle sales, company officials have told
Jiji Press.
The top Japanese automaker will decide on details of the production
control later, but its overall output capacity may be slashed by some 20 pct
from the current level of some 10 million units, the officials said.
Toyota, which is believed to suffer a group operating loss of
several hundred billion yen in the current business year to March,
apparently intends to improve earnings by streamlining production.
Its annual global production capacity surged in recent years on the
back of the expansion of existing plants and the opening of new plants.
But dwindling demand dragged down its December output by 31 pct
from a year before at a British plant and by 32-65 pct at four U.S. plants
excluding a Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. <7270> plant that manufactures Toyota
vehicles.
Toyota has no plans to consolidate plants or reorganize domestic
production lines. But accelerated market contraction could force the
automaker to thoroughly review its production system.