Global auto production by Japan’s eight major automakers still declined by 12.5% on year to about 1.84 million units for August, Mysteel Global calculated basing on their individual releases on September 29, and the on-year decline was less than 14.2% for July, mainly on the support of the continuing recovery in China’s auto industry, according to market sources.
Among the total, production at their overseas plants totalled 1.31 million units, down 10.4% on year and down 0.2% on month, while the domestic output accounted for 535,388 units, down substantially by 11.5% on year or 20.5% lower on month.
Japan’s eight automakers’ Aug production
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Global production | Domestic production | ||||
| Company | Volume (unit) | M-o-M | Y-o-Y | Volume (unit) | M-o-M | Y-o-Y |
| Toyota | 634,217 | -8.2% | -6.7% | 202,691 | -20.2% | -11.5% |
| Honda | 389,481 | -8.0% | -6.4% | 42,549 | -26.7% | -35.2% |
| Nissan | 304,739 | -2.6% | -25.1% | 31,667 | 1.6% | -47.1% |
| Suzuki | 209,792 | -8.7% | 1.3% | 70,732 | -26.8% | 8.5% |
| Mazda | 99,312 | -2.2% | -15.9% | 60,712 | -12.1% | -19.3% |
| Daihatsu | 81,196 | -12.9% | -29.7% | 66,053 | -23.1% | -1.5% |
| Subaru | 79,907 | -6.7% | 22.2% | 42,069 | -31.5% | -5.5% |
| Mitsubishi | 45,877 | -4.4% | -53.3% | 19,115 | 6.5% | -51.6% |
| Total | 1,844,521 | -7.1% | -12.5% | 535,588 | -20.5% | -17.1% |
Source: company releases
As for China, “thanks to higher auto sales in the country, the Japanese automakers were able to lift output at their China plants, and this helped them to recover faster than expected,” an auto sheet trader in Tokyo shared.
Honda, for example, posted its auto output at its China’s plants reached a record high in August, totaling 141,331 units or up 18.5% on year, according to its release.
Toyota, Japan’s top automaker, produced 119,711 units of vehicles in August at its plants in China, up 15% on year, and it sold a total of 164,354 units in China, up 27.2% on year, according to its release.
As for the domestic production, the on-month declines for most of the Japanese auto manufacturers were partially due to fewer working days in August with holidays.
“For a few of them, their per day auto output was higher than in July, confirming that the auto production in Japan has been on the recovery too,” a second trader said, “which was why the Japanese integrated mills had started lifting their output from July just to get ready higher steel demand from auto producers,” he added.
No latest statistics on steel booking by the Japanese auto sector for August is available yet, but for July, the carbon steel orders booked by the auto sector totalled 424,705 tonnes, down 37.1% on year but up 77.2% from June and special steel orders fell 29.8% on year but up 55.1% on month to 257,032 tonnes, as reported.
This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.
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