Major automakers in Japan reported Thursday hefty drops in global vehicle production for the month of March as the companies continued to suffer from steep declines in domestic sales .
Toyota Motor Corp., the world's largest automaker, reported that global auto production, including output from its subsidiaries Daihatsu Motor Co. Ltd. and Hino Motors Ltd., fell by 46.1% in March from a year ago, to 472,036 units.
March auto output in Japan for Toyota fell by 58.4% and domestic sales were down by 32.1 %, with exports falling 68.3%.
Including the two subsidiaries, Japanese production was down 51.1%, domestic sales fell 27.1% and exports sank 68.5%.
Japan's second-largest automaker, Honda Motor Co., said its global automobile production for March fell for a fifth month in a row, down 37.6% to 215,773 units, compared with a year ago, as output in Japan fell by 40.3%.
Production in China, however, reached a fresh record, up 4.2% for the fiscal year 2009 from a year ago to 512,076 units, the automaker said.
Still, for the month of March, output in China fell by 14.2% from a year earlier.
Honda's exports from Japan in March fell for a sixth-straight month, down 57.6% from a year ago to 22,497 units. Its Japanese auto sales for the Honda brand fell for March by 24.9% year-on-year.
Also Thursday, Mazda Motor Corp. said domestic sales fell a total of 31.8% in March from a year ago. Exports for the month were off 52.8%.
Mazda blamed its production declines on "a reduction in global demand."
Despite the grim numbers, shares of most major automakers rose Thursday. Toyota's stock was up 3.5%, Honda up 1.7% and Mazda up 5.4% by the close in Tokyo. Goldman Sachs raised its rating on Toyota and Honda to buy from neutral.
