Although 2008 is officially in the books, hard times still lay ahead for the world’s automakers. The U.S. market is expected to continue its downward trend this year, as are other developed markets such as Japan. Because of this fact, Toyota has announced even further production cuts.
The Japanese automaker cut Japanese production of its Lexus luxury brand last month, but the new round of cuts will see Toyota idling all of its Japanese production facilities. Toyota’s Japanese plants will be idled for 11-days during February and March, according to Reuters.
The news of the shut down follows closely on the heels of Toyota ’s announcement to suspend production at all of its Japanese plants for three days in January.
In November the Japanese automaker reduced its production plan for the year ending March 31st by 950,000 units, so the further shuttering of its Japanese plants should push that number easily into the millions. However, Toyota failed to announce how many units the 11-day shutdown would eliminate from its production schedule.
