Japan's Auto Output Soared 61% in May
Japan’s eight top carmakers built 740,626 vehicles at their domestic plants in May, 60.8% more than the same month last year, according to data from the carmakers released Thursday.
The big leap in production reflects the impact of the earthquake and tsunami last March which severely disrupted the supply chains providing components to the automakers. To a lesser extent the growth reflects revival of government subsidies to encourage the purchase of environmentally friendly vehicles.
Exports by the big eight carmakers soared by an even bigger percentage — 92.8% — to 361,670 in May over the same month of 2011. The figure is even higher than the 320,633 logged in 2010 when Japan’s carmakers were enjoying robust sales growth.
Toyota’s domestic production led the pack, multiplying 2.6-fold to 274,811 vehicles, its 10th straight month of year-on-year increase. Honda more than doubled domestic output to 74,043 vehicles thanks to the popularity of its N Box minivehicle.
Suzuki produced 93,480 vehicles, a 44.2% jump due to strong demand for its Swift and Solio models. Nissan’s domestic output, on the other hand, was up a scant 5.2% to 84,201.
Fuji Heavy Industries set new highs for May domestic production of its Subaru and Daihatsu vehicles with 40,292 units and 66,660, respectively.
Mazda’s output rose 8.8% to 67,654 vehicles.
Mitsubishi was the only company to see a decline in domestic production this May from last year, posting a 16% fall in domestic production to 39,485. The main reason is that Mitsubishi had recovered the quickest from the disaster of last March, having suffered the least disruptions of its supply chain.
All eight automakers also reported higher overseas production for the month amid a growing migration of production overseas to minimize the impact of a persistently high yen.
Honda’s overseas production soared 276.0% to 283,576 vehicles in May for its highest month ever. Toyota also logged a record high for overseas production in May with a 270% jump to 486,960 vehicles.