Toyota plans to idle 3 lines at Japan engine plant

13-May-2009 Intellasia | Bloomberg | 7:01 AM

Toyota Motor Corp., Japan’s biggest automaker, plans to idle three of 11 production lines at a domestic engine plant in anticipation of lower car sales.

The automaker intends to begin the shutdown, at the Kamigo plant in Aichi prefecture, central Japan, by the middle of the year, Hideaki Homma, a spokesman, said today by phone. He didn’t say how long the lines would be closed.

Toyota is trimming production as rising unemployment and falling wages cripple car demand in the US and Japan, its two biggest markets. The carmaker, based in Aichi, plans to build 2.94 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles at home in the year ending March 2010, 13 percent fewer units than a year earlier, it said on May 8.

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