Japan carmakers to cut China production by half

Sales have plunged at Japanese car makers since violent protests and calls for boycotts of Japanese products broke out across China in mid-September over the Japanese government's purchase of a group of disputed islands in the East China Sea from their private owner.

Nissan will suspend the night shift at its passenger car factories in China and operate only during the day, the business daily said. Nissan has two passenger car factories in China, in Huadu and Zhengzhou, with two lines each. A Nissan spokesman declined to confirm the report.

Toyota and Honda plan to cut China production to about half normal levels by shortening working hours and slowing down the speed of production lines, the Nikkei said without citing a source. A Honda spokeswoman said she was checking the report. Read more >>

20,000 Apply for Less Than 1000 Jobs At Alabama Hyundai Plant

It should not come as a surprise with unemployment over 8% that good paying jobs in manufacturing are harder than ever to land.

At the Hyundai plant in Montgomery, Alabama more than 20,000 people have applied for one of the 877 job openings.

The surge of people applying may seem unusual, but it's not.

Take a look:

• Last summer Ford had more than 18,000 people apply for one of 1,800 jobs at the retooled Louisville plant. That plant will open and start building the Edge SUV in mid-June. 
• In 2011, more than 41,000 applied for one of the 1,300 positions at the new Toyota plant in Tupelo, Mississippi.
• In 2009, more than 65,000 applied for one of the 2,700 jobs at the new Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, TN. Since opening, that plant has added shifts and is currently hiring another 820 workers.

Read more >>

GM sales down 30 percent for the year

Image via Wikipedia

pacific.bizjournals.com
Toyota sales in December rose to 187,860 from 141,949 a year earlier. For all of 2009, sales fell to 1.8 million from 2.2 million in 2008. Lexus sales were down 17 percent for the year.

Honda sold 1.15 million vehicles in 2009, down from 1.42 in 2008.

For Detroit, the numbers were worse. General Motors sales were down 30 percent for the year. Ford was off 15 percent. Chrysler sales plunged 36 percent and the company sold fewer than 1 million vehicles for the first time since 1962.

Subaru, Kia and Hyundai were the only automakers to report sales gains in 2009. Each set new sales records.

Auto Sales Plunge

September Auto Sales Plunge in Aftermath of Cash for Clunkers; SAAR at 9.2M units, LDV Sales Down 41% from August, Hybrid Sales Down 48%

Green Car Congress

Reported hybrid sales by month. Click to enlar

In the aftermath of the summer sales boom fueled by the US Cash for Clunkers program, September 2009 light duty vehicles sales dropped back to pre-incentive lows. With 745,997 cars and light duty trucks sold in September, according to Autodata, sales were down 22.7% year-on-year, and off 41% from August. The Seasonally Adjusted Sales Rate (SAAR) in September dropped back down to 9.22 million units, from 14.09 million units in August.

Reported sales of hybrids in September dropped 4.1% year-on-year to 19,977 units. (Reported sales do not include sales of the Mercedes S400 hybrid, which went onsale in the US late in August.) Compared to August results (38,701 units), however, hybrid sales dropped 48.4%. New vehicle market share for reported hybrid sales in September dropped back down to 2.7% from a high of 3.6% in July.

Hybrid new vehicle market share by month. Click to enlarge.

September 2009 had 25 sales days compared to 24 days for September 2008. All comparisons in this post are based on actual volume, not adjusted day sales rate.

Toyota. Toyota Motor Sales (TMS) reported September sales of 126,015 vehicles, a decrease of 12.6% by volume from last September. TMS posted September sales of 14,585 hybrid vehicles, down 5.3% from September 2008.

The Prius posted September sales of 10,984 units, up 1% from September 2008, but down 42% from August 2009. Camry Hybrid posted 872 units in September, down 68.7% year-on-year, and Highlander Hybrid posted 269 units, down 70.8% year-on-year.

September 2009 SAAR. Data: Autodata. Click to enlarge.

The Lexus Rx hybrid posted 1,168 units, up 57% year-on-year; the GS hybrid posted 38 units, up 31% year-on-year; and the LS 600h posted 12 units, down 74.5%. The new HS250 posted 1,242 units.

Ford. In September, Ford reported a 6% drop in sales year-on-year. Ford estimates it gained over 2 points of market share versus last year in September and the third quarter.

Ford sold 2,138 hybrids in September, up 116% year-on-year. Sales of the Escape/Milan hybrid were down 11.3% year-on-year to 878 units, but the Fusion and Milan hybrids accounted for 1,260 units.

Honda. American Honda Motor Co., Inc., posted total September vehicle sales of 77,229, a decline of 20% year-on-year.

Honda hybrid sales dropped 6% year-on-year to 1,898 units. Sales of the Civic Hybrid plunged 92.5% to 152 units, but the new Honda Insight posted 1,746 units.

General Motors. General Motors dealers in the United States delivered 155,679 light duty vehicles in September, down 45% year-on-year. GM retail sales were down 46% while fleet sales declined 43%.

A total of 1,011 GM hybrid vehicles were delivered in the month, down 48.3% from September 2008.

Nissan. Nissan North America, Inc. (NNA) reported September 2009 sales of 55,393 units versus 59,565 units last year, a decrease of 7%.

Sales of the Altima Hybrid dropped 26.6% year-on-year to 345 units.

Toyota ‘grasping for salvation'

HANS GREIMEL, AUTOMOTIVE NEWS
Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda said his money-losing automaker is “grasping for salvation” as it struggles to return to profit.

The world's largest car company was once targeting annual sales of 10 million vehicles but now expects sales of 7.3 million this year, down from 8.97 million in 2008, Toyoda said today at a news conference.

Citing the five stages of corporate decline outlined by Jim Collins, author of How the Mighty Fall, the Toyota chief warned that his company has slumped to stage four, which Collins calls “grasping for salvation.”

“We are grasping for salvation,” Toyoda said, adding that the company already has spiraled through the first three stages: (1) hubris born of success, (2) undisciplined pursuit of more and (3) denial of risk and peril. His self-admonitions echoed the apologies commonly made by Japanese executives who take responsibility for financial turmoil or corporate scandal.

Grim assessment

While Toyota is far from entering the fifth stage--capitulation to irrelevance or death--Toyoda's grim assessment was clearly meant to underscore the challenges he faces after only three months as president. They also seemed aimed at ensuring customers that he grasped the severity of the situation and was committed to reversing Toyota's malaise.

“Toyota has become too big and distant from its customers,” the grandson of the automaker's founder said as he prepares for a second-straight year of substantial financial and unit-sale decreases.

In the United States, Toyota's sales fell 13 percent in September from a year earlier as the market suffered a sharp letdown after the government-funded cash-for-clunkers program ran out. Total U.S. sales tumbled 23 percent. Toyota is down 28 percent for the year.

Separately, Toyoda called the current dollar-yen rate "very tough," saying the weak U.S. currency made it difficult to return to profit on an unconsolidated level.

"When you get to this level, it makes it difficult to return to profit on sales growth alone," he said.

Toyoda repeated Toyota's aim to return to profit at the parent level "as soon as possible," even as it expects global sales to fall 18 percent from 2008 to 7.34 million vehicles this year. That would leave about 30 percent of the company's production capacity unused.

Toyoda took the helm in June as the world's biggest automaker faced one of its biggest crises in history amid a global credit crunch and an industrywide sales slump that forced General Motors and Chrysler into bankruptcy.

For the financial year to March, Toyota has projected a consolidated operating loss of ¥750 billion ($8.4 billion), assuming a dollar rate of ¥92. It has forecast a parent-only operating loss of ¥600 billion.