PETALING JAYA: Toyota Motor and Honda Motor have halted operations in many Malaysian plants, due to the implementation of the second movement control order (MCO 2.0) and the categorisation of automotive assembly as a non-essential industry.
According to a report from Nikkei Asia, Toyota shut down two assembly plants on Thursday while Honda did the same at two of its facilities the day before.
Honda plans to restart operations on Jan 26, the current end date for MCO 2.0, while a representative for Toyota said that “a decision will be made later on,” about their reopening timeline.
Auto assembly was initially included as an essential industry, but was pulled at the last minute by officials on Tuesday evening.
Malaysia is the third largest auto producer in Southeast Asia, behind Thailand and Indonesia. From January to November last year however, production fell 19% to roughly 430,000 vehicles.
In 2019, Toyota manufactured roughly 61,000 vehicles in Malaysia, including the Yaris subcompact and the Hilux pickup truck.
Honda’s annual capacity in Malaysia is 300,000 two-wheelers and 100,000 four-wheelers, such as the Civic and Accord sedans.
Automakers had been on the road to recovery thanks to tax breaks offered by the government targeted at improving passenger vehicle sales, and as a result, auto production generally exceeded year-on-year numbers beginning in June.
Perodua also discontinued production on Thursday. The company sold 220,000 vehicles last year with its market share exceeding 40%. - FMT
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