Toyota Extends U.S. Plant Shutdown, Seeks $9 Billion Credit

Toyota Motor Corp. (T:7203), the world’s biggest carmaker, has extended the shutdown of its factories in the United States for an additional four weeks. Production in these factories is now scheduled to resume on April 20.

Toyota has 15 factories in the United States, including a major manufacturing facility in San Antonio, Texas, which employs 3,200 workers. It is estimated that Toyota’s suppliers in Texas employ additional 4,000 people.

The closure of plants started on March 18. Toyota has also been forced to suspend production in India after the government ordered a 3-week lockdown. In addition, production sites in France, the U.K., the Philippines and Brazil have also been halted.

Following the economic and financial crisis amid the coronavirus outbreak, Toyota is seeking a 1 trillion yen ($9 billion) line of credit from Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. and MUFG Bank.

“We continually evaluate our funding needs,” Kensuke Ko, a spokesman for Toyota said to Bloomberg. “At this moment nothing has been decided regarding the report.”

Yesterday, Moody’s cut Toyota’s credit rating to A1 from Aa3. The rating firm also downgraded ratings of all global car companies. Toyota is still the best ranked Japanese car manufacturer in the context of credit rating.