Japanese Carmakers Intensify Imports - Of Parts

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

While foreign cars are still a bit underrepresented in Japan, fueling fierce allegations of trickery by unions, democrat lawmakers and grossly underrepresented Detroit carmakers, foreign carparts do not have this problem. With the yen stuck at abnormally high level, Japanese carmakers more and more buy their parts cheaper overseas.

Japan’s number two carmaker Nissan has been at the forefront of the international parts trade. Nissan is expanding foreign procurement and plans “to have imported parts make up at least 40% of components for automobiles assembled at factories in Japan by fiscal 2016, up from slightly less than 30% in fiscal 2011,” says The Nikkei [sub] without naming sources.

This procurement won’t help create American jobs as the parts are coming from China, South Korea and other Asian markets. According to the Nikkei, Nissan already uses more foreign-made parts than competitors, “which are believed to have overseas procurement ratios of less than 20 percent.”

The competition is catching up though. Toyota is said to be courting South Korean autoparts suppliers. Daihatsu slashed the cost of its Mira minivehicle by using many foreign-made components.

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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  • Challenger2012 Challenger2012 on Aug 28, 2012

    Bd You are so sure of yourself, like I was. Maybe you should read another article http://counterpunch.org/2009/07/03/detroits-collapse-the-untold-story/. Take 10 minutes; you will have another point of view later. As for your ideas, you forgot the Detroit makes steering wheels on the left hand vs. right, and that US cars are too big. No mention that Europe has been building cars in both configurations for years. Also strange that Kia/Hyundai are expanding all over the world, yet somehow cannot figure out how to sell cars in Japan to Oriental buyers. Hyundai 81 cars in 2011, Kia only 3. Nissan and Renault have a relationship, why no cars in Japan?

    • See 2 previous
    • 95_SC 95_SC on Aug 29, 2012

      @oldguy Yes, If I recall the Koreans and Japanese don't really get along that well.

  • Challenger2012 Challenger2012 on Aug 29, 2012

    @oldguy & kog. 1) If you read the article I provided you will get another point of view and facts. Read, then write about how wrong I am. 2) Japanese don’t seem to be so fiercely pro Japan when it comes to high end cars. Ferrari sold 386 in 2011, and Hummer 293, MB 33,212, yet Kia only 3. Seems to me protectionism. The Japanese will allow expensive cars out of reach by the vast majority of buyers at the same time keeping the domestics safe from foreign auto makers on the low end. 3) I worked for Yokogawa as a DCS Field Engineer. One of my co-worker engineers was (pardon the spelling) Suichi Azuma, so I know a little about Japan’s culture. 4) Oriental as an insult, get real.

    • 95_SC 95_SC on Aug 29, 2012

      It's not so much a pro-Japan as anti-Korea. Think of your grandfather coming home from WWII and seeing a VW dealer. Probably not going to get a sale there.

  • Factchecker Factchecker on Aug 29, 2012

    "fueling fierce allegations of trickery by unions, democrat lawmakers and grossly underrepresented Detroit carmakers." Actually correct way to say democrat lawmakers is democratic law makers. It is the democratic party, not the democrat party. Please at least pretend that you are educated enough to know how use proper adjectives, instead of political talking points.

  • Factchecker Factchecker on Aug 30, 2012

    I forgot to mention that when talking about political parties, the party name should be capitalized. I corrected your sentence below “fueling fierce allegations of trickery by unions, Democratic lawmakers and grossly underrepresented Detroit carmakers.”

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