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Toyota slowing UK, Turkey output

TOKYO - Toyota Motor Corp the world's largest carmaker, said on Friday it was slowing production at plants in Britain and Turkey and would downsize its contract work force to meet weakening demand in Europe.

‘In response to demand conditions recently in Europe, we are adjusting our production flexibly through such steps as a change to TAKT time,’ a company spokeswoman said, referring to the time spent to roll out each vehicle.

Toyota will not renew contracts for some temporary workers but will retain full-time staff, she said.

The company declined to reveal targets for the production and contract staff reductions but it reported on Thursday that sales were sliding in North America, Western Europe and Japan.

The move is in line with the company's announcement on July 28 that it had cut its 2008 production forecasts by 250,000 vehicles to 4.33 million outside Japan and by 200,000 units to 4.10 million units in Japan.

Toyota also cut its 2008 European sales target to 1.19 million units from 1.27 million and its global sales forecast by 350,000 units to 9.5 million vehicles.

The plants in Britain and Turkey, Toyota's biggest and third-biggest in Europe, mainly supply vehicles for the European market.

The British plant rolled out a total 278,000 units of the Avensis mid-sized sedan, the Auris compact and others last year, while the plant in Turkey made 161,000 units of such cars as the Corolla Verso.

Last month, Toyota said it would suspend production of slow-selling big trucks in the United States for three months and implement a major overhaul of its US manufacturing plans to shift to more fuel-efficient cars.