Toyota's global sales skid down in FY 2019 due to pandemic effects

Toyota Motor Corp. said Tuesday that the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the suspension of its production lines at home and overseas and slumping demand, had seen its global sales drop in the business year through March.

The Aichi Prefecture-based automaker said that global sales fell 1.4 percent in the business year, with sales comprising 10.45 million vehicles.

Following the automaker's global group sales sliding 4.6 percent in February, Toyota said sales in March alone skidded down 22.6 percent in March to 779,151 vehicles.

Toyota attributed the decline to the global COVID-19 pandemic leading to its plants across many areas in Europe, the United States and Asia remaining shuttered in the recording period, with its global output reversing by 17.7 percent to 788,610 vehicles, compounded by consumer demand being badly hurt by the pandemic in March.

The maker of the ubiquitous Corolla and Prius hybrid models will likely see its output and sales figure worsen in the current month, as global plant suspensions have been extended and six of its domestic factories' operations will remain halted through May amid the pandemic.