China Troubles Cause Toyota Cutbacks
Toyota may be cutting back its global group production by 200,000 units in the 2012 calendar year, writes Reuters, as a reaction to sharply reduced sales in China after the island row. Toyota’s China sales were down 49 percent in September.
The story is based on a report in the Mid-Japan Economist newspaper, which is published near Toyota’s Aichi HQ. The paper confirms what TTAC had said for months, namely that Toyota wanted to produce slightly more than 10 million cars this year. If the report is right, this number would drop to 9.8 million. Even at the reduced level, Toyota would likely regain the top spot, with GM close behind. We will know more about GM when it publishes its Q3 data in a few days.
If the story is correct, then the China protests create bigger damage than thought. The 200,000 unit cutbacks would amount to more than half of the planned China production for the last four months of the year.
Toyota spokeswoman Shino Yamada told Reuters that “the figure cited in the report is not based on anything announced by us, and at this time there are no changes to the figures we presented earlier.” In August, Toyota had announced plans for 10.05 million cars for the calendar year. Yamada-san is right, the 300,000 less were not announced.
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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Doesn't surprise me, not that people here in China don't want Japanese cars so much as they don't want them destroyed by someone on the street. This also makes it easier for VW to become number 1 worldwide in vehicle sales as most buyers are going to VW, with some to Hyundai/Kia and a small amount to GM.
it is impressive that Toyota has the discipline to cut production in half in response to demand being cut in half rather than continuing to build and let inventory get out of control. costs money & time to build them, should they cannot move then u only see portions of investment back, dont forget 2013 will be around the corner, what to do with 12 cars? sell at discount? I guess they dont have Unions to dictate how many shifts ought to have.
The Japanese auto situation in China is interesting. But in China, sometimes things may be different than what is suspected on the surface. With politburo selections coming soon, and a formal power handover on the way (but only formal-after all, this is a nation where Jiang Zemin has been out of power for almost a decade, but still wields considerable influence), there's a lot to consider. The posters of Mao imply much, but it is not clear what faction is behind it. In many respects, this show of left wing rabble rousing could be meant more for certain current leaders (the Hu faction) than as a protest against Japan. From a practical standpoint, a Chinese friend has a Toyota, and tells me he is afraid to drive it over fears from his fellow citizens. One is reminded of the Cultural Revolution, in a way.
This time Nippon's PM Noda san, kind of spelled Nadir in trades with Middle Kingdom especially Wheels. Toyota, Nissan , Happy Honda & Zoom zoom zoom Mazda et al are all steaming into the iceberg at 1/2 speed now. These cars are contrary to one time flying off the shelf but just can't seem to give them away, whoever in Middle Kingdom buys a new rice rocket is kind of walk around with a dead Albatross around one's neck. His excellency Noda is basically re-arranging the deck chairs on Costa Concordia. Soon enuf he'll have to either change course on the little Islands aka the Senkaku or change his employment address.