Business Leap Frontier

Toyota Motor Corp. said Tuesday that it would suspend production at all of its domestic plants for 11 days between February and March in reply to a fall in sales.

A Toyota spokesman said, “We will suspend the operation of 12 Toyota factories in Japan for 11 more days.”

A stoppage of unprecedented scale for the nation’s top automaker as it struggle already idling its domestic plants for three days in January to manage with rapidly decrease global demand. Last time in August 1993, Toyota Motor Corp. halted production at all its Japan plants, when demand fall because of increasing yen, and that was for only one day.

But the stoppage time of this moment is really alarming for them. A worldwide financial slump has hammered the auto industry in Japan and elsewhere, forcing carmakers to cut employees, lower production and holdup new models. Toyota spokesman Hideaki Homma said Tuesday.

We are coping with a slump in global sales. Demand in the world auto market is so depressed that every model is falling harshly in sales.

The most recent output cuts came after the Japanese auto giant last month forecast its first ever annual operating loss, blaming an unexpected crisis in the global auto industry. Sales of latest vehicles in Japan fell to 3.2 million vehicles last year, the lowest in 34 years, the Japan Automobile Dealers Association said Monday. Toyota has already moved to reduce production at its domestic, Canadian, French, and U.S. factories, and plans to lay off 3,000 provisional workers in Japan.