Toyota to cut Japan capacity more than 10% by 2014, report says

TOKYO (Reuters) -- Toyota Motor Corp. will cut its production capacity in Japan by more than 10 percent from current levels to about 3.1 million units by 2014, continuing to reduce its domestic output, the Nikkei said on Wednesday.

The automaker will not lay off workers as part of the cuts and is eager to ensure that its domestic suppliers and partners remain profitable, the newspaper said.

The company wants to maintain domestic production at about 3 million vehicles per year, down by about 500,000 units from current levels, even if a strong yen hurts export profitability, the business daily said.

Toyota has already cut capacity by 100,000 units at its subsidiary's factory in Shizuoka Prefecture in Japan and its overall domestic capacity is expected to fall to about 3.6 million units this year, the Japanese daily said.
The automaker's production capacity was about 3.9 million vehicles in Japan before the global financial crisis hit, the Nikkei said.

Toyota plans to build 8.65 million vehicles globally this year, of which 5.25 million will be produced abroad. Plans call for increasing overseas output to about 6.8 million by 2015, bringing the worldwide total to 10 million.