CARACAS: Toyota is halting production at its only assembly plant in Venezuela because the world’s largest automaker lacks the hard currency to import parts due to government controls, a factory official said.
The temporary shutdown of the Japanese car maker’s operations in the western city of Cumana is to begin February 13 and last at least six weeks. “We are going to close initially for 45 days in hopes that we will be granted the foreign currency needed to import auto parts,” a source in Toyota Venezuela’s management said.
Companies such as Toyota must go through a complex bureaucratic process to obtain dollars. Venezuela is only providing dollars at the official rate of 6.3 bolivars to the dollar to importers of designated priority goods such as food and medical supplies. AFP
