Toyota Output Slows From September Record as Challenges Persist

Masumi Suga, Bloomberg News

A Toyota Motor Corp. logo on a vehicle at a dealership in Sapporo, Japan, on Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2022. Toyota Motor is scheduled to release its earnings figures on Aug. 4. Photographer: Kentaro Takahashi/Bloomberg , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- Toyota Motor Corp. produced 771,382 vehicles in October, down from a record of 887,733 the previous month, and warned of an uncertain outlook due to Covid and semiconductor shortages.

Output was up 23% from October 2021, when supply chains were disrupted by the spread of Covid in Southeast Asia, Toyota said in a statement Tuesday. The world’s biggest automaker is now adjusting some production in China, which is still gripped by the virus and related restrictions.

Toyota’s global sales also rose 23% from a year earlier in October, reaching a total of 832,373 vehicles.

Including subsidiaries Daihatsu Motor Co. and Hino Motors Ltd., output and sales totaled 924,132 and 918,756 vehicles, respectively, Toyota said.

In early November, the company cut its global target for the fiscal year through March and stuck with a conservative profit outlook.

Toyota shares slipped 1.2% Tuesday in Tokyo. They’re down 4.6% this year.

Separately, Nissan Motor Co. said its global output fell 2.4% from a year earlier to 297,801 units in October, the first decline in four months, while sales dropped 13%. Honda Motor Co.’s global output increased 1.1% to 330,002 units last month versus a year earlier.

(Updates with Honda, Nissan output in last paragraph.)