Toyota Motor Corp has reportedly suspended operations at all of its assembly plants in Japan due to a production system malfunction, bringing domestic output to a standstill at the world’s biggest-selling automaker.
The glitch, reported on Tuesday, is preventing the Japanese auto maker from ordering components and its cause is under investigation.
A spokesperson at Toyota, however, said it is “likely not due to a cyberattack”, AP reported.
Toyota suspended 12 plants in its home market from Tuesday morning and added the final two from the afternoon, the spokesperson said.
Operations were halted for a day last year when a supplier suffered a cyberattack, hampering Toyota’s ability to order parts.
Toyota then resumed operations using a back-up network.
While the cause of the latest malfunction was unclear, corporate Japan has been on alert in recent days as businesses and government offices reported harassing phone calls.
The government said the calls were likely from China and related to Japan’s release of treated radioactive water from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean.
It was unclear how much output would be lost due to the latest production halts.
The affected plants together account for about a third of the automaker’s global production, Reuters calculations showed.
Toyota’s domestic production had been on the rebound after a series of output cuts it blamed on semiconductor shortage. Output was up 29 percent in January-June, the first such increase in two years.
Its Japan output averaged about 13,500 vehicles daily in the first half of the year, Reuters calculations showed. That excludes vehicles from group automakers Daihatsu and Hino.
Tuesday’s incident is also having a knock-on effect, with Group firm Toyota Industries announcing partial suspension of operations at two engine plants due to the automaker’s glitch.
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