Japanese Motor Vehicle Industry Recovering

The Japanese motor vehicle industry, which had suffered from supply chain disruptions and power shortage problems following the March earthquake and tsunami disasters is beginning to show progress. Production of motor vehicles fell from 796 thousand vehicles in February to 404 thousand in March and to 292 thousand in April. May saw a recovery in production to 490 thousand units and, in June, to 742 thousand units. Exports of motor vehicles, which had fallen from 432 thousand units to 126 thousand in April, were up to 402 thousand units by June. The percentage increase in exports has been greater than that of production as shown in the first chart, which is plotted on a log scale.

Production of trucks and buses has recovered to pre-disaster levels, but production of passenger cars is still short of pre-disaster levels. The second chart, also on a log scale, shows the production of passenger cars, trucks and buses over the past five and a half years. The recent percentage increased in the production of buses has been greater than that of trucks or passenger cars, but the production of buses is small, well below that of trucks and passenger cars.

The latest production data for passenger cars by manufacturer are for May. Data for Toyota, Nissan, Mazda and Honda are shown in the third chart. which, again, is on a log scale. Of the four manufacturers, Toyota and Honda experienced the sharper percentage declines, but have since shown the greater percentage rises.