FY 2009 Toyota domestic output may hit 31-year-low below 3 mil. units+

NAGOYA, April 21 Kyodo -
The domestic output of Toyota Motor Corp. is likely to fall below 3 million
units in the current business year through next March, possibly hitting the
lowest level in 31 years amid the global economic downturn, company sources
said Tuesday.
The automaker is expected to see its domestic production fall in the range of
around 2.8 million units, down more than 30 percent from the 3.4 million units
it estimates for fiscal 2008, which ended in March.
If the fiscal 2009 output comes down to the estimated level, it would be the
lowest since fiscal 1978, when the output was 2.89 million units.
In fiscal 2007 alone, Toyota registered a record high domestic output of about
4.26 million units.
The slack projection is attributable primarily to anemic U.S.-bound shipments
and weak domestic sales, the sources said.
The hard economic times are expected to more than offset brisk sales of new
Prius electric-gasoline hybrid.
Although Japan's leading automaker maintains that it will not lay off any
regular workers, temporary factory hands look certain to bear the brunt of the
planned downsizing.
In February, Toyota told its parts suppliers that it would build 6.2 million
vehicles worldwide in fiscal 2009, down 12 percent from the preceding year.
If domestic production remains at around 2.8 million units, its overseas output
would be about 3.4 million units, down some 8 percent from fiscal 2008.
Since fiscal 1979, Toyota has been assembling some 3 million to 4 million
passenger cars a year in Japan.
Since the company began overseas production for the first time in the United
States in the mid-1980s, the number of cars built abroad has persistently
climbed, surpassing domestic output in fiscal 2005.
==Kyodo