Toyota is closing all European factories by the end of April

By Gina Lee

Investing.com – Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp (T:7203) said it has halted production at all European factories.

Production will not resume until April 20 at the earliest, the company announced on Monday. The factories have been closed since mid-March.

Toyota has seven factories in Europe: in France, Great Britain, the Czech Republic, Poland, Turkey, Portugal and Russia.

The only exception is factories in Russia, which will remain closed from March 30th to April 3rd.

This follows the company’s move to halt all of its North American production last Thursday and continued rising COVID-19 numbers on both continents. The company also extended suspensions in Brazil, the Philippines and Malaysia and shut down three plants in Thailand for 10 days.

This comes as the company is reportedly seeking a JPY 1 trillion ($9.26 billion) credit line from SMBC and MUFG.

Moody’s Investors Service on Thursday cut Toyota’s Aa3 rating to A1, while also lowering the ratings of other auto companies. The company is also under review for further downgrade.

Toyota shares fell 4.07% by 12:08 p.m. ET (05:08 GMT).

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