Worldwide production up at Toyota, Nissan, Mazda, down at other Japanese automakers

TOKYO February 24, 2004; The AP reported that global production rose at Japanese automakers Toyota Motor Corp., Nissan Motor Co. and Mazda Motor Corp. in January but fell at Honda Motor Co. and Mitsubishi Motors Corp., the companies said Tuesday.

Worldwide production at Toyota, Japan's top automaker, climbed 10.2 percent on-year last month to 528,098 vehicles, while domestic production inched down 1.5 percent to 294,910 vehicles. Overseas production surged 29.7 percent to 233,188 vehicles.

Global production rose at Nissan in January by 8.9 percent to 249,365 vehicles as overseas production jumped 20.2 percent to 135,758 on healthy demand for the Quest minivan and Titan pickup in North America. Production in Japan slipped 2.1 percent to 113,607 vehicles. Nissan has a partnership with French automaker Renault SA.

Mazda, Japan's fifth largest automaker, reported a rise in both domestic and overseas production for the month. Mazda, which is 33.4 percent owned by Ford Motor Co. of the United States, said production in Japan climbed 6.9 percent to 65,974 vehicles while production abroad soared 47.5 percent to 24,434 vehicles.

Honda's January worldwide production dropped 9.0 percent to 240,788 vehicles. Domestic production plunged 15.9 percent at 90,902 vehicles, while overseas production was down 4.3 percent at 149,886 vehicles.

Mitsubishi Motors' global production dropped 14.1 percent on year to 114,536 vehicles. Japanese production was down 4 percent at 60,060 vehicles. Offshore production plummeted 23 percent to 54,476 vehicles as production slowed in the United States and Europe, said the Tokyo-based automaker, which is 37 percent owned by DaimlerChrysler AG of Germany.