Toyota Motor Corp. said Tuesday that it will suspend some of the lines at an engine plant in Japan in an effort to streamline its production operations.
The world's biggest car maker by volume will halt by the middle of this year three of 11 production lines at its largest engine plant in Aichi Prefecture, central Japan, a company spokesman said.
The decision comes as the car maker faces the challenge of reorganizing its redundant production capacity amid the worldwide auto demand collapse.
The Japanese auto giant will downsize the production lines at the Kamigo engine factory in line with its domestic production plan for 2009 to build 2.70 million vehicles, down 33%, or 1.31 million fewer vehicles, from 2008.
Toyota doesn't know yet how long it will run the plant with the reduced lines, the spokesman said.
