Toyota warns that it cannot meet its goal due to lack of inputs

Japanese automaker Toyota has not set an annual target, but announced that it estimates production will fall short of the level forecast in the latest earnings report.

Toyota Motor Corporation announced that it will probably not reach the expected targets of producing 9 million units during this fiscal year, a period that will end in March 2022, due to the already known shortage of semiconductors.

The Japanese company reduced production to 700,000 units in the next month, about 150,000 units less than the figure previously forecast, as announced earlier this week through an official statement.

There he admitted the shortage of chips as the main obstacle.

The automaker has not set an annual goal, but announced that estimates that production will not reach the forecast level.

This could be seen as a negative signal for the markets since it is one of the three most major car manufacturers in the world, in line with Volkswagen and Nissan-Renault .

What does Toyota expect in 2022

The company has already cut its annual production forecast a few months ago due to the restrictive measures due to the pandemic in Asia, which have interrupted its ability to obtain semiconductors.

“We are in a period of production recovery, however we could not achieve the objectives that we had previously forecast”, declared Kazunari Kumakura, director of the company’s purchasing sector, a few days ago.

“It will be very difficult to achieve the annual production objectives set due to the problems we’re going through,” added the executive.

Despite the cutbacks, the company still plans to make about 5 percent more cars in February than in 2021, when it achieved production almost 670 thousand units.

Number of vehicles produced by Toyota worldwide between 2009 and 2021 (in thousands). Statista.

High production levels were projected for the last month of the fiscal year and next year, Kumakura said.

“There are still risks and due to the continued spread of the coronavirus, it is almost impossible to anticipate conditions,” he added.

2022 will be it gets dark for automakers

Signs recently emerged that the situation in supply chains was getting worse again.

In the middle of last month, the Asian country’s auto parts trade group warned that several problems had arisen, ranging from procurement conflicts in Southeast Asia to a lack of workers on the West Coast of the US, which affect the shipment of parts.

Comments made by Toyota warn that other auto companies in the country may face production cuts in the near future. The company will halt production at nearly 10 factories in Japan for nearly two weeks next month, including the plant in Tahara, Aichi, where it makes the Lexus model.

Toyota also sees problems in China

“We will continue to analyze the situation and advise ourselves with the rest of the affected companies to consider the use of a substitute in case the shortage of chips semiconductors extends indefinitely”, they pointed out from the Japanese automobile manufacturer.

“In addition, we will continue working with our suppliers with the aim of strengthening the supply chain and we will be doing everything in our power scope to deliver the vehicles in the shortest possible time”, they expanded.

In addition to the problems with the shortage of semiconductors, the restrictive measures in China due to the coronavirus forced the company to suspend work in the Tianjin plant, another worrying sign for the auto industry as the new variant of Covis-19 spreads in China, the world’s largest auto-producing country.