Japan carmakers' global output falls as sales sink

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.