TOKYO: Toyota Motor Corp. said Friday it will resume car production at all its plants in Japan at half capacity from April 18 to 27 after the March earthquake and tsunami forced it to halt manufacturing due to shortages of parts and power. Toyota, the world's No. 1 automaker, said production at its 18 plants will then halt from April 28 to May 9, a period that includes Golden Week holidays when factories would normally close. Toyota said the parts shortage situation has been gradually improving since the March 11 tsunami but it is still struggling to procure around 150 types of parts. Toyota previously said there were shortages of about 500 types of components. Toyota said it remained unclear when it would return to full production in Japan. Nissan Motor Co. said Friday it would resume domestic production at half capacity from April 11. Nissan's parts factory that was hit by the tsunami will begin limited production from April 18. But Nissan said it is unclear how long it can keep running its entire Japanese operations - five auto plants and two parts factories - amid the parts shortage. Ryoichi Saito, auto analyst at Mizuho Investors Securities Co., said Toyota could report a loss for the April-June quarter if its production continues at half normal levels in the coming months. Toyota gets more than 90 percent of its auto components in Japan, according to Saito. Toyota suspended all car production in Japan from March 14 to 26. Since late March it resumed limited production at a handful of plants. The tsunami disaster has resulted in a production loss for Toyota of 260,000 cars from March 14 to April 8.
