Toyota to fully resume production on Oct. 26 as parts crunch eases

Toyota Motor Corp. said Monday it will fully resume production in Japan on Thursday following disruption caused by an explosion at a parts supplier's factory, bringing an end to its latest supply chain crisis that lasted for more than a week, Kyodo reports. 

The automaker said that among the affected factories, operations will be resumed at five locations in central Japan on Tuesday, with the final plant in the region set to restart on Thursday, as it has now secured the parts it needs.

The world's largest automaker by volume restarted operations at production lines in four factories in northeastern and central Japan on Monday. The supply issue led to 13 lines at eight of the automaker's 14 assembly plants in the country being halted at one point.

The explosion occurred on Oct. 16 at a factory belonging to Chuo Spring Co. in the city of Toyota, Aichi Prefecture, which makes suspension springs.

The parts shortage disrupted the production of flagship Toyota cars, including its RAV4 and Land Cruiser sport utility vehicles.

Chuo Spring said it restarted the production of springs at its factory on Saturday after fixing the affected equipment.

Toyota has faced a series of production problems in recent years.

Production at all of its 14 factories in Japan stopped in March last year after one of its suppliers was hit by a cyberattack. Domestic production stopped again in August this year due to a glitch in its parts ordering system.