Toyota, Honda cut North America production amid supply chain woes

Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. Ltd. announced on Wednesday new North American production cuts, citing supply chain issues that have wreaked havoc with the auto industry.

Toyota said it would cut production this week at four plants in Kentucky, West Virginia and Mexico, citing "a shortage of petrochemicals" and "recent severe weather conditions" affecting production.

A Toyota spokespersonsaid the production cuts "will impact production of the Camry, Camry Hybrid, Avalon, Avalon Hybrid, RAV4 Hybrid, Lexus ES 350, Lexus ES 300h and Tacoma," but declined to say how long or how much production would be cut.

Honda said late on Tuesday that supply chain issues would force a halt to production at a majority of its U.S. and Canadian auto plants for a week starting next Monday and would result in some production cuts at all U.S. and Canadian plants next week.

The company cited "the impact from COVID-19, congestion at various ports, the microchip shortage and severe winter weather over the past several weeks."

"In some way, all of our auto plants in the U.S. and Canada will be impacted," Honda said.

On Wednesday, Honda in Mexico said it would suspend production at its plants in that country beginning on Thursday due to supply chain problems.

A Honda representative said in a brief statement it was unclear how long the pause would last, describing the suspension at Mexican plants as a coordinated North America-wide stoppage.

Separately on Wednesday, Volvo Cars, which is owned by China's Geely Holding, said it would temporarily stop or adjust production in China and the United States for parts of March due to a global shortage of semiconductor chips.