Toyota Motor Corp. said it would boost its North American auto production to 70 percent of usual volumes beginning in June, two months earlier than it had forecast, after making extraordinary efforts to obtain supplies of parts.

Toyota is operating its plants in North America at about 30 percent of regular volume, taking two days off each week and running plants at half the volume it normally does to conserve parts as a result of shortages caused by the March 11 earthquake in Japan, reported The Wall Street Journal.

Toyota had previously announced that it would run less than 50 percent capacity at its plants in North America through June 3 and might not get to this higher level until August. On Tuesday, Toyota said it now plans to increase global production to 70 percent of normal levels in June, two months ahead of schedule.

Toyota said the change came because of "countermeasure" activities taken by its parts suppliers. Production of the Avalon, Camry and Corolla sedans, the Highlander SUV, Matrix wagon, Sequoia SUV, Sienna minivan and Venza wagon will return to 100 percent in June, the auto maker said in a statement. The higher volumes could help stem expected shortages of vehicles.

"Our team members and suppliers are working closely on countermeasure activities to improve the parts condition from Japan. We continue to develop solutions in order to restore 100 percent production as soon as possible for all of our North American-made vehicles," said Steve St. Angelo, executive vice president of Toyota's manufacturing arm.