Japan Automakers See Brisk Exports, Poor Domestic Sales in FY
' 07
Tokyo, Apr 23, 2008; Jiji Press reported that all eight major Japanese
automakers posted year-on-year gains in exports and overseas production in
fiscal 2007 that ended in March thanks to brisk demand for fuel-efficient
vehicles, according to data compiled by the firms on Wednesday.
But the automakers had a hard time selling new vehicles in the domestic
market due to the rising trend among young people not to own cars and the
aging society.
Fiscal 2007 figures thus underscored the
companies' heavy reliance on overseas markets where consumers opted for
fuel economy amid soaring oil prices.
In the reporting year,
global production reached record levels at Toyota Motor Corp. <7203>, Honda
Motor Co., Nissan Motor Co., Suzuki Motor Corp. and
Daihatsu Motor Co.
Domestic output exceeded the previous
year's levels at Toyota, Nissan, Suzuki, Mitsubishi Motors Corp.,
Mazda Motor Corp. and Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., chiefly for
meeting stronger export demand.
Exports to Asia, Russia and the
Middle East proved brisk on the back of the economies' favorable
performances, but U.S.-bound exports slumped 8.7 pct at industry leader
Toyota because of that economy's slowdown.
Domestic sales,
meanwhile, showed declines at all eight automakers. Honda, Mitsubishi and
Fuji Heavy suffered particularly large drops due to slack minivehicle
demand.
In March alone, domestic sales showed year-to-year falls
at the eight automakers except Mazda.
Following are the eight
companies' vehicle production, sales and export volumes in fiscal 2007,
with year-on-year percentage changes in parentheses:
Domestic Domestic Exports Global
Production Sales Production
Toyota 4,264,641 1,563,920 2,708,153 8,689,268
(1.9) (-4.8) (4.3) (6.9)
Honda 1,296,682 640,058 695,678 3,955,483
(-3.8) (-7.4) (7.8) (6.8)
Nissan 1,263,333 721,145 725,525 3,513,159
( 6.0) (-2.5) (17.5) (9.6)
Suzuki 1,219,408 673,259 414,160 2,636,987
( 0.6) (-2.5) (6.9) (9.3)
Mitsubishi 875,698 218,632 614,444 1,431,216
(12.9) (-11.3) (38.5) (8.8)
Mazda 1,046,948 255,742 825,153 1,325,990
( 8.2) (-2.0) (10.1) (1.8)
Daihatsu 785,373 622,883 157,482 865,236
(-3.7) (-2.1) (6.6) (1.1)
Fuji Heavy 489,670 222,239 273,703 600,649
( 1.1) (-9.5) (14.2) (2.2)
