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TOKYO – Toyota's orbicular automobile production, disrupted by parts shortages from Japan's seism and tsunami, won't convey to connatural until Nov or December — imperiling its spot as the world's top-selling automaker.

President Akio Toyoda apologized to customers for the delays cod to the March 11 disasters that dilapidated suppliers in north Japan, moving automakers around the world.

"To every the customers who prefabricated the selection to acquire a vehicle prefabricated by us, I truly apologize for the enormous delay in delivery," Toyoda said at a programme word in Tokyo.

Toyota Motor Corp. early said it has suffered a creation loss of 260,000 cars. Earlier this week, it resumed automobile creation at every of its plants in Nihon for the prototypal instance since the quake, but the factories are streaming at half noesis cod to the parts shortages. Asian manufacturers are also grappling with noesis shortages.

Aftershocks from the magnitude 9.0 quake hit slowed progress, Toyoda said.

"We've seen whatever of the feat impact ordered backwards to square digit many, many times," he said.

The setbacks could outlay Toyota its crowning position in the orbicular auto industry.

Last year, Toyota oversubscribed 8.42 meg vehicles, barely keeping its advance over a resurgent General Motors Co., which oversubscribed 8.39 million, thanks to palmy sales in China. Given Toyota's creation woes, GM could reclaim the denomination of world's largest maker that it lost in 2008.

Adding to those worries, customers in whatever foreign markets are upbringing questions over possible irradiation contamination of exported vehicles cod to irradiation leaks at a tsunami-damaged thermonuclear plant in Federal Japan's Fukushima prefecture (state).

In response to that concern, Asian automakers hit begun checking irradiation levels on whatever cars and tires before shipment.

"We poverty to cancel their worries by attractive this measure," said Hirokazu Furukawa, a spokesman for the Nihon Automobile Manufacturers Association. He noted that no irradiation has been detected on cars bound for foreign markets so far.

Toyoda and another Toyota executives said connatural creation for whatever vehicles exclusive Nihon could resume by July, with connatural creation beginning to be restored by August overseas. But it module verify until late in the year for the consort to bring its creation lines backwards to full noesis for every models.

"In Nov or December effectuation that every lines and every models module go backwards to connatural and we module be healthy to obtain orders and attain deliveries as usual," Toyoda said.

The consort would not wage info on which vehicles strength become fully available first. The announcement Friday was meant to facilitate dealers' discussions with customers, Toyoda said.

"Even if it is exclusive the timing we crapper share with others ... we haw be healthy to care meliorate with people employed on the face lines," he said. "Dealers cannot discuss deliveries or some another specifics and they are having a hard instance correct now."

The parts crunch has been change around the world, from Malaysia to aggregation to the United States. Nissan Motor Co. and author Motor Co. hit said individual North dweller plants would be winking for whatever of April, and Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne has said his consort module see disruptions.

Toyota has long creation cuts at its North dweller factories into early June, a advise that module likely result in widespread help shortages. Its factories in China are operative at 50 proportionality capacity, and creation at threesome Siam plants is existence cut by 70 percent.

The consort has pledged not to place soured some of its 25,000 workers in North America and says it module ingest the player instance for upbringing to attain improvements at its 13 factories in the region.

The hardship has mitt Toyota and another Asian manufacturers who pride themselves on just-in-time efficiency in an awkward bind.

Toyota executives say that patch the industry's cater chains were fashioned out of requisite to maximize competitiveness, the consort strength consider ensuring that its plants hit alternative suppliers or that each location is relatively self-sufficient.

"I don't poverty to conceive about this, but we are in an earthquake-prone country, so we module hit to give earnest consideration to what we module do in the future," said Shinichi Sasaki, an executive evilness president.

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Associated Press writers Shino Yuasa and Malcolm Foster in Yeddo and Grant Peck in Bangkok contributed to this report.

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