TOKYO: Some Japanese automakers, including Toyota Motor Corp., said Wednesday that they will continue to suspend operations at part of their plants in May, due to a fall in demand caused by the coronavirus outbreak.

All 15 of Toyota's domestic automobile assembly plants will be closed on May 1 and May 11, both weekdays, and manufacturing lines at four Toyota plants in Aichi, Shizuoka and Iwate prefectures will wholly or partially be suspended from May 12 to May 18 at the longest.

Daihatsu Motor Co. said it will halt its plants in Osaka and Kyoto prefectures for two to three days in May. A Daihatsu plant in Shiga Prefecture that produces the automaker's mainstay Tanto minivehicle and was set to be closed through April 21 will remain shut for three more days.

Hino Motors Ltd. will close its plant in Hamura, Tokyo, on May 12.

Suzuki Motor Corp., which has intermittently shut down its five domestic plants since earlier this month, will extend its freeze on production at two plants until April 28.

Subaru Corp. will postpone the reopening of a plant in the US state of Indiana to May 11.

The reduction in the production of cars at the Indiana plant and at Subaru's domestic plants amounts to a 10th of the company's global production volume.

JIJI Press