(Yicai Global) Jan. 18 -- Toyota Motor’s joint venture car and engine plants in the Chinese city of Tianjin remain closed, according to a spokesperson for the Japanese automaker, following an outbreak of the omicron variant of Covid-19 in the city.

“Things are changing every day,” the spokesperson for Toyota China told Yicai Global yesterday, “so we can’t even forecast a date for production to resume.”

Omicron is spreading across some regions in China, including the major port cities of Shanghai, Dalian, and Tianjin, forcing local governments to take measures that can impact businesses. Toyota and German automaker Volkswagen Group shut their factories in Tianjin last week.

“We’ll implement more flexible production and inventory systems to ensure the best supply possible,” the spokesperson said, without mentioning the possible affect of the production halts on quarterly sales.

Toyota jointly operates its Tianjin plants with Chinese carmaker FAW Group. Their JV car factory, which can turn out 620,000 units a year, shut on Jan. 10 as local authorities began a mass testing campaign to keep omicron infections under control, Bloomberg News reported on Jan. 13.

As of yesterday, Tianjin had reported a total of 312 Covid-19 cases since it began battling the outbreak on Jan. 7. The city has 14 million residents.

Other Toyota car plants in the cities of Chengdu and Changchun will adjust production according to the Tianjin factory’s supply of parts and vehicles, the spokesperson added.

VW Automatic Transmission Tianjin, Volkswagen’s component factory in the city, restarted some shifts on Jan. 13, Reuters reported today, citing Volkswagen Group China. It had shut on Jan. 10, the same day as the Tianjin car plant that Volkswagen operates with FAW, Reuters said.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Futura Costaglione