Jan. 19, 2021—Toyota officials say the company is unlikely to reach its goal of manufacturing 9 million vehicles this fiscal year, which ends in March, due to the ongoing semiconductor chip shortage.

According to a report from The Detroit News, the automaker is scaling back monthly production in February by around 18 percent to 700,000 units. No new target was set—the company in a news release only said its final output is projected to be "lower than expected." 

"We're in a production recovery phase, but we haven't been able to meet as high targets as we were previously planning," Kazunari Kumakura, head of Toyota's purchasing group, said Tuesday. "There are still risks and with COVID continuing to spread, conditions are difficult to read."

He added it would be "very difficult" to meet the earlier forecast in current conditions.