The head of Toyota Motor Corp. said in Seoul Saturday that he expects the company's global production to fully recover by November to the level seen before the March earthquake that hit Japan.
"All products and manufacturing lines of Toyota around the world will be completely normalized in November," President Akio Toyoda told reporters during his first visit to South Korea since he took the helm of the world's largest automaker in June, 2009.
"Despite aftershocks, we are making all-out efforts to deliver products as quickly as possible to our clients," he said.
Toyota is struggling to normalize its output level seen before the March 11 earthquake that devastated northeastern Japan. Insufficient parts supplies disrupted the company's production lines in the U.S. and other part of the world.
Toyoda said that the number of auto parts in short supply has reduced to 30 in early June from 150 in April. The deadly earthquake and subsequent tsunami that struck Japan's Tohoku region disrupted supplies of some 500 auto parts.
He forecast that the company's production lines in Japan will be operating at 90 percent of the pre-quake levels on the average in June, a faster-than-expected recovery.
The grandson of Toyota founder said that his two-day visit to South Korea was aimed at discussing strategies in the Korean market with car dealers and to give updates on the recovery status in Japan.
Some industry watchers said that his South Korea visit may likely be linked to a decline in Toyota's market share in Asia's fourth-largest economy in recent months. South Korea's auto market is the 15th largest in the world with annual sales of about 1.3 million units.
Due to the ascent of the Japanese yen against the Korean currency and the March earthquake, Toyota's sales in South Korea fell 20 percent on-year in the first five months this year. Its high-end Lexus lineup also saw its share decline 24 percent in 2010 from the previous year. (Yonhap)
