Japanese auto giant Toyota said on Wednesday it would temporarily halt production at five European plants for several days in April and May, due to a shortage of parts following the March 11 earthquake.

Toyota said the plants in Britain, Turkey, France and Poland would also operate at a reduced volume throughout May "in order to manage available parts supply".

Japan's leading automakers have been forced to suspend production due to the impact of the huge earthquake and tsunami, with crucial supply chains broken and power cuts prompting plants to be shuttered.

Toyota joins its Japanese rivals Nissan Motor and Honda Motor in cutting back output in Europe.

The world's biggest automaker on Wednesday said three vehicle production plants -- Burnaston in England, Adapazari in Turkey and Onnaing in France -- will be affected by the latest production issues.

Output at engine manufacturing facilities in Jelcz-Laskowice in Poland and in Deeside, Wales, will also be halted.

Toyota said eight non-production dates between April 21 and May 2 have been scheduled, although this coincided with some previously planned public or company holidays at some facilities.

"Even though most of our parts come from European suppliers, we are experiencing gaps in our supply chain due to the situation in Japan," Didier Leroy, president and CEO of Toyota Motor Europe said in a statement.

"By adjusting our production in Europe, we are adapting to the current situation whilst not completely interrupting our deliveries of vehicles to our customers."

The automaker has previously said it will suspend all output operations at most of its 14 North American factories for four to five weekdays later this month.

It also said Wednesday it would suspend operations in the Philippines from Monday through Wednesday next week due to a shortage of parts, with Ford Motors' operations there also affected.

Toyota last week said production at its factories in Japan would restart from 18 April until 27 April at 50 percent of normal pace.

The production halts have hit the automaker at a time when it was recovering from a recall crisis that brought the quality of its vehicles into question.

Toyota was last week threatened with a downgrade of its long-term credit rating by Moody's, one month after Standard & Poor's cut its rating on the automaker.

Previously lauded for its safety, Toyota became mired in crisis when it recalled nearly nine million autos between late 2009 and February last year due to brake and accelerator defects alleged to have caused dozens of deaths.

The crisis dealt a huge blow to the firm's reputation, prompting predictions that it would lose market share as it tightened its recall policy to encompass around 16 million vehicles between late 2009 and January this year.

Toyota shares closed 1.38 percent higher at 3,285 yen Wednesday, partly due to a weaker yen.

earlier related report
Japan economy, Toyota feel effects of disaster
Tokyo (AFP) April 13, 2011 - The impact of Japan's earthquake and nuclear crisis rippled through the economy Wednesday as the government downgraded its outlook and Toyota announced more temporary plant shutdowns overseas.

Another strong aftershock from the 9.0-magnitude quake that struck the northeast coast more than a month ago hit the disaster region, further fraying nerves amid tense stop-and-go containment efforts at a stricken atomic plant.

Emergency workers at the tsunami-hit Fukushima nuclear site northeast of Tokyo started syphoning off tonnes of highly radioactive water and eyed long-term plans to encase dangerous spent fuel rods in steel caskets.

The government meanwhile, worried over food safety after the plant leaked radiation into the air, soil and sea, ordered a halt to some mushroom shipments from the region, having earlier restricted vegetables and dairy products.

The Cabinet Office cut its assessment of the world's number three economy for the first time in six months, in light of the March 11 tectonic disaster that has killed more than 13,000 people and left over 15,000 missing.

"The economy was picking up, but it has shown weak signs recently due to the impact of the Great East Japan Earthquake," the Cabinet Office said in its monthly economic assessment. "It remains in a severe condition."

The disaster devastated infrastructure and manufacturing facilities, breaking key supply chains and bringing power shortages that have crippled production for Japan's biggest companies such as Sony and Honda.

Toyota, the world's largest auto maker, said parts shortages would force it to halt production for several days at five European plants over the next two months after announcing similar steps at most of its 14 North America plants.

Toyota Motor Philippines will also suspend operations from Monday through Wednesday next week, Dow Jones Newswires quoted a company spokesman as saying.

The International Monetary Fund on Monday lowered its 2011 growth forecast for Japan -- which has long battled sluggish demand, deflation, and high public debt -- to 1.4 from 1.6 percent, citing "large uncertainties".

Japan estimates rebuilding will cost up to 25 trillion yen ($295 billion).

Japan's nuclear disaster was Tuesday upgraded to the top level of seven -- the same "major accident" category as Chernobyl -- although officials stressed that far less radiation was released and no one had died from contamination.

Unlike at Chernobyl 25 years ago, where the reactor vessel exploded and scores died from radiation exposure within weeks, Japanese crews have been able to work on site, pushing on with efforts to eventually shut the plant down.

But the regrading sparked fierce criticism Wednesday from China, where state media demanded an apology from Prime Minister Naoto Kan's government for not coming clean about the severity of the crisis.

The English-language Global Times, which has ties to the ruling Communist party, said Japan "made a mistake in withholding the truth".

"The Kan administration owes a serious official apology to neighbouring countries," it said.

Overnight, workers at the plant started pumping out the highly-radioactive runoff water left from reactor dousing operations, having earlier freed up space by dumping 10,000 tonnes of less contaminated water into the sea.

Getting rid of the most toxic water would allow workers to resume the crucial task of repairing reactor cooling systems that were knocked out by the 15-metre (50-foot) high tsunami and damaged in subsequent hydrogen explosions.

Workers have also used three remote-controlled heavy excavators fitted with video cameras to clear radioactive rubble from the explosion-hit plant.

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) refocused its attention on spent fuel rods stored in containment pools that threaten to spew radiation into the air unless they are constantly covered and cooled with circulating water.

The embattled plant operator hopes to eventually remove and safely encase the thousands of rods.

The Asahi Shimbun daily, citing internal TEPCO documents, reported on a plan to lower steel caskets into the pools to seal and take away the fuel rods.

TEPCO president Masataka Shimizu, who was ill and bedridden for some of the crisis, again apologised for the disaster and promised compensation for those affected, without specifying amounts.

"We have set up a task force for helping the victims in order to offer comprehensive support for reconstruction," he said. "We plan to make provisional payments that people forced to evacuate need now."