Toyota’s domestic output down over 40%

TOKYO -- Toyota Motor Corp. posted its steepest domestic output drop for November in 30 years, with sales and exports tumbling to decade lows while local rivals cut production to counter dwindling auto demand world-wide.

Toyota said Wednesday that its domestic production dropped 27.2% in November from a year earlier to 288,138 vehicles -- the firm's sharpest November fall since 1978 from when its historical output data are available.

The announcement comes two days after Japan's largest car maker by volume forecast its first-ever operating loss in the current fiscal year through March, hurt by falling demand and the yen's strength, which is cutting into its profits more sharply than expected.

Some analysts warn that its earnings could get worse further down the road, indicating more output drops may come.

"We still cannot see an earnings bottom," Kota Yuzawa, analyst at Goldman Sachs, said.

Toyota's output in Japan declined as domestic sales skidded 27.6% and exports sagged 23.9% in that month. The sales fall is the biggest for November at least since 1966, and the export drop is the largest for the month since 1978 when exports sank 24.8%, a Toyota spokeswoman said.

For 2008, the auto****** maker said Monday that its domestic production will fall 5% as sales at home and in overseas markets will drop, though it declined to provide an output outlook for 2009.

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