Toyota Motor Corp. said Wednesday its global output and sales hit record highs for October on robust demand in North America and Europe, despite a temporary production halt in Japan due to an explosion at a parts supplier's factory.
The automaker made 900,285 cars worldwide in the month, up 16.7 percent from a year earlier, and sold 890,241 vehicles globally, up 7.0 percent, the company said.
The pace of production picked up amid an easing semiconductor shortage, and its production outside of Japan increased 8.7 percent to 617,590 cars, an all-time high for a single month, it said.
Domestic production jumped 39.2 percent to 282,695 units, even as the company halted some production lines in Japan for 10 days during the month after an explosion at a factory belonging to Chuo Spring Co. in the city of Toyota, Aichi Prefecture.
Toyota said a production ramp-up on the back of the improvement in the chip crunch made up for the output loss, which was caused by a suspension spring shortage resulting from the explosion.
Helping the rise in global sales was a 5.2 percent growth in sales outside of Japan to 756,245 units, also a record high for the month.
Sales of hybrid cars were notably strong in North America and Europe, with models such as the RAV4 and Corolla particularly popular, the automaker said.
Domestic sales rose 17.8 percent to 133,996 vehicles, according to Toyota.
