Toyota to Cut Production Capacity by 220,000

Aug. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Toyota Motor Corp., Japan’s biggest carmaker, will cut domestic production as car sales in the country fall to the lowest in more than 30 years.

Toyota will reduce output by about 220,000 vehicles at its Takaoka plant from the fiscal first quarter of next year through the second half of calendar year 2011, spokeswoman Ririko Takeuchi said by phone today. The company will cut global capacity by 1 million vehicles this fiscal year, the Nikkei newspaper reported earlier.

Global car demand has plummeted due to the global recession, forcing General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC into bankruptcy. Toyota, the world’s largest carmaker, earlier this month forecast a net loss of 450 billion yen ($4.8 billion) for the year ending in March.

“Toyota is desperate to cut costs,” said Yuuki Sakurai, chief ****utive officer of Fukoku Capital Management Inc. in Tokyo. “The company needs to stop building unpopular and unprofitable cars.”

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