Toyota (Toyota Motor Corp.), the world's largest carmaker, reported October sales, production and export results on Monday. The carmaker's global production fell more than 1/4 in October from a year earlier, affected by continuing shortages of semiconductors and other components.
Toyota said it produced 627452 vehicles in October, down from 845107 a year earlier. Of these, domestic production was 151918 vehicles, down 50.9% from the same period last year. Production outside Japan was 475534, down 11.2 per cent from a year earlier.
Global sales also fell 20 per cent to 677564 in October. Of these, domestic sales were 84705, down 41.3% from the same period last year. Sales outside Japan were 592859, down 15.7 per cent from a year earlier.
Southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand are the main production bases of auto parts, and 30% of the parts suppliers of Japanese car factories come from these countries. As the outbreak of the novel coronavirus epidemic in Southeast Asia has hit the auto parts industry, many Japanese automakers have been forced to slash production.
The global auto industry is expected to cut production by about 7.7 million vehicles this year and lose as much as $210 billion in revenue because of chip shortages, according to consultancy AlixPartners.
However, despite the sharp drop in production, automakers such as Toyota and Nissan (Nissan Motor Co.) raised their profit forecasts as strong demand pushed up car prices and profits.
Toyota is confident that its production will soon get back on track. The carmaker plans to produce about 850000 to 900000 cars in November and increase production in the second half of the fiscal year. The company also raised its annual operating profit forecast to 2.8 trillion yen from 2.5 trillion yen announced in August.
Toyota's production is likely to catch up from January. " Jefferies analyst Takaki Nakanishi wrote in a report earlier this month. "in this case, restoring supply capacity as soon as possible should have a quantity and price effect and enable Toyota to maintain strong profit growth among global OEMs."
