Toyota to stop production at two plants as chip shortage continue

Toyota Motor will stop its production operations at the Iwate and Miyagi plants in June because of continued chip shortage, the automaker said on Tuesday.

Iwate’s two production lines and the Miyagi Ohira plant in eastern Japan will be suspended from three to eight days, affecting the production of models including the C-HR and the small SUV Yaris Cross, the automaker said.

The suspension will affect the production of 20,000 vehicles.

The chip shortage, which has hit automakers worldwide, emerges from a confluence of factors as automakers, which closed plants for two months during the coronavirus pandemic last year, rival against the sprawling consumer electronics industry for chip supplies. A factory fire suffered by Japanese chipmaker Renesas this year is also cited as a reason behind the chip shortage.