Toyota to resume production at 4 plants as parts supply woes ease

Toyota Motor Corp. said Friday it will resume operations at four domestic factories next Monday following an ease in the supply crunch caused by an explosion at a supplier's factory, Kyodo reports.

The automaker said it will restart five production lines at the four factories in northeastern and central Japan as it has now secured enough parts following the accident, which resulted in production being halted at many of its 14 assembly plants in the country.

The remaining eight production lines at six factories will remain shut, with Toyota saying it will decide on Monday afternoon when operations at these plants will resume.

The latest disruption stems from an accident that occurred on Monday at a factory belonging to Chuo Spring Co. in the city of Toyota, Aichi Prefecture.

A shortage in springs used for suspensions and other car parts disrupted production of the automaker's flagship cars, which include the RAV4 and Land Cruiser sport utility vehicles.

The stoppage is the latest in a series of production problems that the automaker has experienced in recent years, including a glitch in its part ordering system in August.

Earlier it was reported that Japan had seen an estimated 2,184,300 foreign visitors in September, representing 96.1 percent of the figure for the same month in 2019 before the coronavirus outbreak.