Japan: Automakers Report Plunging Sales
March 25th, 2009Via: IHT:
Toyota Motor said Tuesday that its global production had plunged by nearly half in February from a year earlier, while Honda and Nissan reported similarly grim figures highlighting the troubles facing Japanese automakers.
Separately, the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association said auto sales in Japan for the fiscal year through March 2010 were expected to have dropped 8 percent from the previous year to what would be a 32-year low of 4.297 million vehicles.
The last time domestic sales were lower was in fiscal 1977, when 4.23 million vehicles were sold, it said.
“With the Japanese economy weakening and the outlook for employment looking very uncertain, consumers are in no mood to buy a car,” Satoshi Aoki, chairman of the manufacturers’ association, said at a news conference.
Demand for passenger cars in Japan has fallen for the past three years, largely because of a population shift to cities, which are well-served by public transportation. The global economic crisis has exacerbated that trend, as car owners in Japan wait longer to replace aging vehicles.
