Toyota Suspends All European Factories Until End of April By Investing.com

By Gina Lee

Investing.com – Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp (T:) announced that it has suspended production in all its European factories.

Production will not resume until April 20 at the earliest, the company said on Monday. The factories have been closed since mid-March.

Toyota has seven factories in Europe, in France, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Poland, Turkey, Portugal and Russia.

Factories in Russia are the sole exemption and will be closed from March 30 to April 3.

This follows the company’s move to suspend all its North American production on last Thursday, and as COVID-19 figures in both continents continue to rise. The company has also extended suspensions in Brazil, the Philippines and Malaysia, as well as suspending three plants in Thailand for ten days.

This comes as the company is said to be seeking a JPY 1 trillion ($9.26 billion) credit line from SMBC and MUFG.

Moody’s Investors Service cut Toyota’s Aa3 rating to A1 on Thursday as it also downgraded ratings for other automobile companies. The company is also under review for a further downgrade.

Toyota stocks were down 4.07% by 12:08 AM ET (05:08 AM GMT).