Japan's domestic car output drops in March

Japan's domestic car output in March dropped against a year earlier, pressured by sluggish global and domestic sales because of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Domestic output by the country's eight car manufacturers fell by 8pc against a year earlier to around 791,000 in March. The March output showed an 8pc recovery from February when China's strict quarantine measures against Covid-19 disrupted supplies of auto parts.

Large output falls posted by Toyota, Mazda, Nissan and Honda pushed down the country's overall car output in March. Smaller producers Daihatsu, Subaru and Mitsubishi all increased their March output by 10-14pc each from a year before. Suzuki posted steady output in March.

Japan's domestic car sales also fell by 24pc from a year earlier to 485,207 in March, according to industry data.

Toyota reduced domestic car output by 13pc from a year earlier to around 279,000 in March. Toyota has been forced to cut domestic car output in response to a sharp fall in global car sales amid the coronavirus. The firm's global car sales in March dropped by 24pc from a year earlier to around 682,000.

Domestic car output is expected to significantly fall in April and May as all the eight car producers have plans to intermittently halt production lines at domestic assembly plants, in the wake of the sluggish car sales and under the country's Covid-19 state of emergency effective until 6 May.

The falling domestic car output is taking its toll on Japanese demand for steel and metals products. The country's crude steel output is projected to fall by 26pc from a year earlier to 19.4mn t during April-June as steel producers Nippon Steel and JFE Steel have reduced output. The sluggish car output is also casting a cloud over Japanese production of aluminium and copper products in the current 2019-20 fiscal year.

By Rieko Suda

source: Argus Media