This Is A Tsunami Wave

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

The Japanese auto industry slowly but surely is clawing back from the abyss created by one of the worst disasters that were visited upon the island nation. Following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, the industry had crashed. Three months later and earlier than thought, the industry is at near pre-disaster levels. Data released by the Japan Auto Manufacturers Association shows the June production at 742,431 units, only 13.9 percent below June 2010.

Japanese Production 2011 By Automaker

JanFebMarAprMayJunToyota234,045283,556129,49153,823107,437249,660Nissan81,85193,43247,59044,19380,036102,390Mitsubishi60,08961,58249,43427,48147,01359,069Mitsubishi Fuso4,5816,0572,6351,6063,9957,833Mazda68,84170,42839.88735,31362,20880,114Isuzu18,12517,9348,0294,79416,02921,096Honda69,17070,34634,75414,16834,74643,289Hino8,3559,6284,7584,9407,04911,403Suzuki73,94683,72941,79058,39864,84875,475Daihatsu48,44056,71628,09120,57841,89359,389Subaru36,21040,72916,53025,39122,43829,910UD Trucks2,2931,3348891,2261,8982,597Others16116116190133206Total Production706,107795,632404,039292,001489,723742,431Exports365,288431,582312,478126,061202,833402,042

Once the remaining effects of the disaster have been overcome, we can expect year-on-year growth in the last quarter of 2011 and especially in the first quarter of 2012. But the damage is done.

So far, output in Japan alone is 3,429,934 units for the first six months, down 29.2 percent from the 4,843,770 units total recorded in the first half of 2010. That’s 1,413,836 units swept away, in Japan alone.

Automobile exports for the first half of the year were 1,840,164 units, 20.8 percent below the 2,324,098 units exported in the first six months of 2010.

What you see here are just the effects in and on Japan. A picture of the global effects on Japan’s Top Six can be seen here.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • Michaeleboyd Michaeleboyd on Jul 29, 2011

    Interesting numbers but the graph is graphically pretty poor, I don't know if the source produced it but it seems similar to other TTAC produced graphs, A bar graph would be a much better representation, the line graph visually implies that production fell off a cliff before the Tsunami disaster, a line graph might work with weekly data points but not monthly, I was totally confused at first until I got to the hard numbers chart. It works with the wave idea but isn't very good at depicting the data

  • 1995 SC At least you can still get one. There isn't much for Ford folks to be happy about nowadays, but the existence of the Mustang and the fact that the lessons from back in the 90s when Ford tried to kill it and replace it with the then flavor of the day seem to have been learned (the only lessons they seem to remember) are a win not only for Ford folks but for car people in general. One day my Super Coupe will pop its headgaskets (I know it will...I read it on the Internet). I hope I will still be physically up to dropping the supercharged Terminator Cobra motor into it. in all seriousness, The Mustang is a.win for car guys.
  • Lorenzo Heh. The major powers, military or economic, set up these regulators for the smaller countries - the big guys do what they want, and always have. Are the Chinese that unaware?
  • Lorenzo The original 4-Runner, by its very name, promised something different in the future. What happened?
  • Lorenzo At my age, excitement is dangerous. one thing to note: the older models being displayed are more stylish than their current versions, and the old Subaru Forester looks more utilitarian than the current version. I thought the annual model change was dead.
  • Lorenzo Well, it was never an off-roader, much less a military vehicle, so let the people with too much money play make believe.
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