Toyota Motor Corp. and Nissan Motor Co., Japan's largest and third-biggest automakers, led the country's first drop in vehicle production in seven years as the global recession sapped car demand.
Production in Japan by the country's 12 manufacturers fell 15 percent to 9.99 million vehicles for the year ended March 31, the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association said in a statement today. That was the biggest decline since the group began releasing data in 1967. Exports also plunged for the first time in seven years, falling 17 percent to 5.6 million units.
Toyota and other automakers widened production cuts in the second half of last fiscal year to reduce their excess inventories amid plunging sales in North America, Japan and Europe. New autos in the U.S., traditionally Japanese automakers' most profitable market, sold at an annual rate of 9.86 million units in March, compared with 16.1 million last year, according to sales tracker Autodata Corp.
"We're still not sure if the drop in production has hit the bottom yet," Hirokazu Furukawa, a spokesman at the auto group, told reporters in Tokyo today.
Toyota reduced domestic output 20 percent last fiscal year, including a 58 percent cut in March. The company has no plan to set factory holidays from May, easing production cuts, President Katsuaki Watanabe said on March 26.
Nissan built 17 percent fewer vehicles in Japan in the full-year period and posted a 56 percent drop last month. Honda Motor Co., Japan's second-largest automaker, said its production fell 11 percent last fiscal year.
Japan's car and truck manufacturers built 552,071 vehicles in March, down 50 percent, the auto association said. Exports plunged 64 percent to 228,201 last month.
Overseas production by the country's automakers fell 1.8 percent to 11.7 million vehicles in the 12 months ended Dec. 31. That was the second straight year that overseas output exceeded domestic production.
