Local production ceremony of the CR-V sport utility vehicle in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China.
Honda Motor Co., Ltd. said this morning in Tokyo that that its worldwide production outside of Japan showed a year-on-year decrease for the ninth consecutive month, going all the way back to November 2008.
Worldwide production for the first six months of 2009 experienced a year-on-year decrease for the first time in 11 years.
Exports from Japan in July 2009 also experienced a year-on-year decrease for the tenth consecutive month.
Year-to-date production is off -32% in total as Japan’s second largest automaker continues to adjust to the ongoing Great Recession.
|
Honda Worldwide Production |
||||
|
July 2009 |
Year-to-Date Total (Jan. – July 2009) |
|||
|
Units |
vs.’08 |
Units |
vs.’08 |
|
|
Japan |
79,316 |
-29.3% |
455,679 |
-35.9% |
|
Outside Japan |
179,656 |
-21.9% |
1,120,605 |
-30.8% |
|
Total |
258,972 |
-24.3% |
1,576,284 |
-32.3% |
Toyota, Japan’s largest automaker is also continuing to reduce output to adjust its excess inventories as a result of decreased worldwide demand. Toyota production was down for the twelfth straight month. It also announced that it will permanently close its giant NUMMI plant in California next March in its largest U.S. market, and has done what was once unthinkable, shutting down an assembly line at a Japanese factory.
Toyota’s exports are off -57%, and its worldwide production declined -40% year-to-date. In Japan production was down -47%. All told, Toyota production at 3,613,369 vehicles is off -38% as it struggles to turn around the sales of its vehicles in the depressed market.
|
Toyota Year to Date |
||||||||
|
Toyota |
Daihatsu |
Hino |
Total |
|||||
| Japan Production | 1,362,120 | (-46.1) | 404,096 | (-15.8) | 32,252 | (-51.7) | 1,798,468 | (-41.5) |
| JapanSales | 730,696 | (-23.1) | 360,387 | (-10.1) | 13,219 | (-46.5) | 1,104,302 | (-19.7) |
| Exports | 690,023 | (-56.5) | 23,620 | (-72.4) | 21,174 | (-48.1) | 734,817 | (-57.1) |
| Overseas Production | 1,753,627 | (-34.0) | 61,274 | (-17.4) | — | — | 1,814,901 | (-33.5) |
| Worldwide Production | 3,115,747 | (-39.9) | 465,370 | (-16.1) | 32,252 | (-51.7) | 3,613,369 | (-37.8) |
Nissan, Mazda, Mitsubishi and Suzuki are facing similar declines and downward adjustments to production.
The latest setbacks point to the difficulties Japanese automakers are experiencing with their export-driven business plans that heavily depend on the unrestricted U.S. market auto market, which rmains at its lowest sales leves in more than four decades.
The Japanese Yen is also restricting income, making for a double hit to Japanese balance sheets, which as a result are awash in red ink with losses predicted to continue at least through the balance of the Japanese fiscal year, which ends next March 31st.
|
Honda Production Outside of Japan |
||||
|
July |
Year-to-Date Total |
|||
|
Units |
vs.’08 |
Units |
vs.’08 |
|
|
North America |
69,949 |
-38.0% |
526,925 |
-38.5% |
|
(USA) |
48,670 |
-37.6% |
360,367 |
-39.6% |
|
Europe |
9,343 |
-48.9% |
26,776 |
-81.3% |
|
Asia |
84,856 |
-1.1% |
479,857 |
-6.3% |
|
(China) |
57,385 |
+4.5% |
319,389 |
+3.5% |
|
Others |
15,508 |
+18.3% |
87,047 |
-19.0% |
|
Overseas Total |
179,656 |
-21.9% |
1,120,605 |
-30.8% |
With Japan’s home vehicle market moribund, and other world economies remaining at depressed levels since the financial markets collapsed last September, the Japanese social contract that promises lifetime employment for autoworkers is eroding as production is cut and plants are idled or closed.
The only increase in Honda’s production occurred in the restricted Chinese market, which set an all-time record for the month of July. That won’t help Japanese autoworkers.