Toyota Shuts Down its Production in Pakistan

Latest Update:

Due to inventory shortages, the Indus Motor Company (IMC) has decided to shut down its production plant from March 6 to March 11, 2024.

Previous Updates:

• Due to inventory shortages, the Indus Motor Company (IMC) has decided to shut down its production plant from October 17 to November 17, 2023.
• Facing inventory shortages, the Indus Motor Company (IMC) has opted to halt production at its plant from September 28th through October 9th, 2023.
• While considering the low demand and inventory levels, the company has decided to close its production plant from Friday, 25 August, 2023 to Wednesday, 6 September, 2023.
• Toyota Indus has once again shut down its car production in Pakistan from July 21 to Aug 3 due to a lack of availability of CKD kits. This comes despite the fact that the government lifted import restrictions under pressure from the IMF.

[Original Content] This year is not a good one for the Pakistani Automobile industry. Toyota has shut down its plant in Pakistan temporarily. The reason behind this is the new mechanism introduced by the State Bank of Pakistan. Under this new mechanism, automobile companies must get prior approval for the import of CKD kits and components for passenger cars. 

Till now, the mechanism seems fine but then there is a situation most of us face in Pakistan (especially in government departments); delay in the approvals. Yes! Toyota has mentioned in a letter to the Pakistan Stock Exchange that “delay in the aforesaid approvals for the company and its vendors has created a huddle in import clearance of consignments for raw materials and components of the company”. 

This has resulted in insufficient inventory levels which affected the supply chain and other production activities. As a result, Toyota Pakistan has announced to observe non-production days from 20-Dec-2022 to 30-Dec-2022 (11 days).  

Toyota’s Declining Sales

It is pertinent to mention that Toyota’s sales have also declined compared to the previous years (Source PAMA). One of the major reasons behind this drop is the frequent price hikes this year due to which, many people have started buying used Toyota cars in Pakistan.

It is an alarming situation as the sales are dropping and on top of that, the company has to shut down its production due to low demand and LCs issues. As a result, we can expect its sales to drop further.

It is worth mentioning that Suzuki Pakistan has been shutting down its production plant more frequently since last year as well. We can only hope that the companies don’t start to exit the Pakistani market due to prolonged poor economic situation.

Stay tuned for more updates about the Pakistani auto industry.