Toyota will idle a vehicle plant in northern Mexico for five days next month due to falling demand.
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“In response to slowing North American demand in recent months, Toyota Motor Manufacturing de Baja California will implement five non-production days during the month of February,” Toyota said in a statement cited by Reuters.
The factory’s 760 employees in Tijuana will report to work during but will receive training or do maintenance instead of making Tacoma vehicles, the statement said.
Toyota took a similar approach with temporary closures of up to three months in the US. Workers were in some cases paid to carry out community work such as park bench painting.
The automaker has also been cutting temporary workers and shifts at various plants worldwide. A night shift at its UK plant has been stopped for five months and workers are due to discuss further measures at meetings planned for February and March.
Toyota is also slowing investment plans worldwide.
Reports in Japanese media on Friday said Toyota was now likely to post an operating loss above its latest (JPY150bn) forecast, and this could be as high as JPY400bn yen (US$4.46bn) for the financial year ending 31 March.
