Toyota to halt some production lines

TOKYO: Toyota Motor Corp said on Tuesday that it will suspend several production lines at an engine factory in central Japan to adjust its output to slowing demand.

The world's top automaker will stop three of 11 production lines at Kamigo, its main engine factory in central Aichi prefecture, beginning sometime in the middle of the year for an unspecified duration, Toyota spokeswoman Ririko Takeuchi said.

The company is taking the step to adjust its engine output in line with its planned vehicle production cuts for this year amid plunging global sales, she said.

Toyota last Friday reported a larger-than-expected loss of 436.9 billion yen ($4.5 billion), its worst annual loss since its 1937 founding, as well as a gloomy forecast in the year ahead.

Toyota said it is slashing its global production for calendar 2009 28 per cent to 6.68 million vehicles.