Toyota halts production at Czech plant due to parts shortage

PRAGUE (Reuters) - The Czech plant of Japan's Toyota halted production due to a parts shortage caused by a fire at a local supplier, a spokesperson for the carmaker said on Tuesday.

"We had to stop production yesterday evening. This will of course have an effect on our production plan. It is not clear how long will the outage last," said spokesman Tomas Paroubek.

The outage is the second this year at the plant which produces 1,000 cars a day after a break in February.

The Czech Republic is heavily dependent on the auto industry, led by Volkswagen's Skoda Auto. Hyundai also has manufacturing plant in the country.

(Reporting by Robert Muller; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)