Toyota Motor Corporation (NYSE:TM) revealed its intention to resume operations at its Japanese assembly plants starting Wednesday. The restart follows a recent production system malfunction which brought the automaker’s domestic output to a screeching halt.
A spokesperson from the company verified Tuesday the glitch affecting component orders led the Japanese car manufacturer to pause operations at its 14 domestic plants. Operations were initially only suspended at 12 plants earlier in the day, while the Miyata facility in Fukuoka and the subsidiary Daihatsu’s facility in Kyoto continued to function normally.
Starting Wednesday morning, Toyota will resume operations at 25 production lines across twelve plants in its domestic market. The remaining two plants will also be brought back online in the afternoon of the same day, the company said.
Toyota will continue to investigate the cause of the glitch. However, the system error is not believed to be the result of a cyberattack.
Toyota's production within Japan had been bouncing back following some cuts in output caused by the chip shortages. They managed to increase output by 29% from January to June, the first uptick in two years.
The company was forced to halt operations for one day last year because one of its suppliers got hit by a cyberattack, impairing Toyota's ability to order parts. The companies eventually got things going again using a backup network.
Although the reason behind the recent malfunction remains unclear, businesses and government offices in Japan have been on high alert due to reports of nuisance phone calls.
According to the government, these calls are believed to originate from China and are connected to Japan's decision to release treated radioactive water from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean.
Shares of TM are down 0.30% in mid-day trading Tuesday.