By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Toyota (NYSE:TM) stock was down 0.4% in Thursday’s premarket trading after a shortage of parts due to the pandemic forced it to announce the suspension of partial operations at a plant for a few days in July and August.
The company said it will suspend production at line number 2 at its Fujimatsu plant for five days in July and August combined. Operations will remain suspended from July 29-30 and August 2-4.
The affected line makes Toyota’s Alphard, Vellfire, Noah, Voxy and Esquire vehicles.
The latest production curtailment is in addition to the suspension of production at one line in its Takaoka plant. That will last August 2-6 and will affect the carmaker’s Corolla and Corolla Touring vehicles, according to the company’s July 16 note.
Several countries in southeast Asia, a large manufacturing hub for ancillaries and automobiles, have been affected by a resurgent coronavirus, mostly the Delta variant.
As a result, fresh cases have risen again and lockdowns are back. This has forced several manufacturers to shut or curtail operations. Last week, two Vietnamese suppliers to Nike (NYSE:NKE) halted production. Toyota rival Honda also announced disruption to production earlier this week.