Toyota halts European production

13th Apr 2011 10:52

Japanese auto giant Toyota has decided to suspend operations at five of its European plants following the Japanese earthquake on 11 March.The carmaker said it will halt production in for "several days" in late April/early May in an attempt to manage available parts supply.The sites affected are the vehicle-producing plant in the UK, Turkey and France, and the engine-making plants in the UK and Poland.The news comes a day after the severity rating of the incident at the Fukushima-Daiihi nuclear power plant was raised from level 5 to 7 by Japanese authorities. This level is the highest on an internationally recognised scale, and puts the disaster on par with Chernobyl crisis of 1986.Toyota said that the said plants are expected to run at a reduced volume due to difficulties in parts supplies.---bc