Car manufacturer Toyota is significantly reducing its production worldwide due to chip shortages that particularly plague the car industry.

The Japanese company’s production target for September will be cut by 40 percent, the company announced.

The world’s largest automaker in terms of sales volumes has so far digested the parts shortage better than rivals. Toyota was building up stockpiles of chips as part of a strategic plan adopted after the 2011 earthquake and Fukushima nuclear disaster. However, the resurgence in the number of corona infections in Asia has exacerbated the crisis in the semiconductor industry.

Toyota plans to build 900,000 cars next month. However, that number has been reduced by 360,000. In addition to chip shortages, the outbreak of the Delta variant of the coronavirus is also hindering the production of cars. In Southeast Asia, in particular, Toyota is struggling with supply problems for car parts. In addition, the prices of materials are rising.

In recent weeks, Toyota has already temporarily shut down several production lines at its factories in several countries due to a parts shortage. This includes a number of its Japanese factories but also production locations in Thailand and China.