Toyota Kirloskar scales down production by 30 per cent in December

16 December 2008

New Delhi: Toyota Kirloskar Motor is scaling down production by 30 per cent during the current month due to declining sales of passenger cars but will go ahead with planned investments of Rs3,200 crore in India.

The company regsitered a fall of 48.55 per cent  in sales in November this year at 2,087 units compared with 4,056 units in the same month last year.

The company indicated that it may have to resort to similar cuts even next year if the current market situation persists.

Hiroshi Nakagawa, managing director, Toyota Kirloskar Motor said he expected the first six months of 2009 to continue to remain challenging and may improve after that.

The company has the capacity to produce over 5,000 units a month at its plant near Bangalore.

Nakadawa told the press that all over the world except in India Toyota Motor has put on hold all investments for expansion. He said the company's latest challenge in India is to reach last year's sales volume. The company had announced a sales target of 60,000 units for 2008 having sold 54,181 cars in 2007 in India.