Cratering China sales due to the islands row made Toyota revise its production targets. Worldwide production by the Toyota Group including Daihatsu and Hino “now looks likely to reach around 9.8 million units to 9.9 million units for the calendar year instead of the currently projected 10.05 million units,” The Nikkei [sub] says.
The number is not official, but the Tokyo wire heard from parts suppliers that Toyota has downgraded its production targets.
In August, Toyota had announced plans for 10.05 million cars for the calendar year, which would have meant a 28% year-on-year jump.
After slashing production in China by half this month, Toyota plans to keep output there roughly 30% lower on average, sources tell the Nikkei. Toyota had planned for China sales of over 1 million units in 2012. Now, it looks like it will be less than 900,000.
“Despite all this, the Toyota group is still on course to break the previous production record of 9.5 million units, set in 2007,” says the Tokyo wire. With the reduced output, GM has an ever so slight chance of keeping its 2011 title as world’s largest automaker.
Does “world’s largest” mean anything by the time the next year comes?
Yes, in GM’s case, it means that the prestigious WuLing brand is as GM as Cadillac.
That’s a bunch fewer Piouses, em err Priuses.
Nice photo by the way. A supersonic Luscombe!?!
So Chinese boycotts have only made a ~1% drop in overall sales of Toyota vehicles.
The numbers illustrate how poorly Toyota has done so far in China. Clearly if they had been a stronger player in China, such as GM, VW, or even Nissan, the impact would have been much more significant.
Given the importance of China, the world’s largest automarket, to GM & VW, the closest rivals to Toyota relative to volume, it just shows how out-of-balance Toyota global sales distribution is.
But the flip-side of that seems to be that Toyota is largely sheltered from geopolitical tensions with China.
I’ve tried a few times, but can not make heads nor tails of the first sentence of this writing. May I ask that it be clarified?
iNeon:
The first sentence refers to an issue in the East China Sea concerning a group of uninhabited islands known to the Japanese as the Senkakus and to the Chinese as the Diaoyus.
Without going into a lot of detail, you can Google the conflict and read up on it. It is affecting the auto industry over there and if more comes from this, it will affect the world’s economy. How much remains to be seen.
Hope that helps.
Who cares if Toyota builds only TEN cars? The photo of that Piper or Cessna is worth TEN MILLION BUCKS!
Not a Piper or Cessna – It’s a Luscombe, circa about 1946. It was the first metal-skinned, general aviation plane sold in the US.
sad news for a:
‘world bland’
Nippon govt is trading a 20 dollar bill for bunch of quarters.
Those islands do have oil & gas underneath, but how much can one take it out and leading time is a big unknown?
Now is trading for a slow down of selling all cars produced in middle kingdom.
Also affecting the tourism trade bilaterally.
Noda is like some kids walking up to Bernie Goetz in the NY subway for some money.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernhard_Goetz