UPDATE 2-Toyota may delay Mississippi plant startup -paper
(Adds comments by company, analyst)
TOKYO, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T), facing a deep slump in the U.S. auto market, is considering postponing the start production at a plant it is building in Mississippi until 2011 or later, the Nikkei business daily reported.
The plant was scheduled to begin building the Prius hybrid car in the second half of 2010.
Toyota, which shocked investors last week when it cut its operating profit forecast by 63 percent to a 13-year low, has set up an emergency committee to look at costs ranging from labour to R&D to improve short-term profitability, and delaying new factory launches was one of the options it said it was considering.
"As we said last week, all new projects are being reviewed under the Emergency Profitability Improvement Committee, but nothing has been decided yet," a Toyota spokesman said.
Toyota had originally planned to produce the Highlander SUV in Mississippi but decided this year to build the popular Prius instead as high gasoline prices slashed demand for gas-guzzling vehicles.
Demand for the Prius remains strong but its sales in the United States are down 5 percent in the year to date due to a shortage of the vehicles.
One analyst said delaying new projects was natural in the current environment of slumping sales, noting that Toyota was in the midst of trying to produce more flexibly at its Japanese factories to build more high-demand vehicles and fewer slow-selling ones.
The worst financial crisis since the Great Depression has sent car sales tumbling in the developed world and slammed the brakes on growth in emerging markets, dealing a blow to automakers everywhere.
Goldman Sachs on Thursday suspended its rating on General Motors GM.N and said the automaker needs at least $22 billion in federal aid, while Chrysler [CBS.UL] said it would be "very difficult to survive" without government support. [ID:nN13354545] (Reporting by Sachi Izumi and Chang-Ran Kim; Editing by Michael Watson)
