Toyota, Nissan Auto Production Falls

Toyota, Nissan Auto Production Falls

TOKYO - Leading Japanese automakers Toyota and Nissan said Thursday their domestic production edged down in June as they boosted output at overseas plants to meet growing demand for exports.

Honda and Mazda, meanwhile, said they increased domestic production to handle growing national and international sales. Struggling Mitsubishi Motors said it increased production in Japan as overseas output dropped.

Japan's No. 1 carmaker, Toyota Motor Corp. reduced domestic production in June by 0.3 percent on year to 333,570 vehicles, marking the first fall in six months. That was balanced, however, by a 17.5 percent increase in overseas production to 323,770 units.

Toyota exports in June jumped 10.7 percent, mostly on the back of strong performance in North American and Middle Eastern markets, the company said.

The carmaker also announced Thursday that it lifted its groupwide global sales target for this year to 8.16 million vehicles from its previous target of 8.03 million. That would be a rise of 9 percent from its sales volume worldwide in 2004, the company said.

Nissan also clipped domestic production by 0.6 percent to 125,272 units, but ramped up overseas production by a hefty 27. 3 percent to 183,440. That included a 25.6 percent boost in the U.S., fueled by strong sales of its Pathfinder SUV, the automaker said.

Nissan saw strong growth in sales in June both at home — 18.3 percent — and in all major international markets, lead by an 18.8 percent increase in the U.S. and 10.1 percent in Europe.

Honda's domestic production rose 2.1 percent to 111,071 units in June, while overseas production soared 21.3 percent to 192,640, led by a 30.2 percent hike in output in the U.S.

Honda's strong suit in sales was domestic, where it sold 70,148 models, an increase of 21.4 percent, driven by the popularity of its new Step Wagon, Airwave and Honda Life.

Exports rose 4.4 percent to 47,029, boosted by a strong 23.5 percent sales surge in Europe.

Mazda posted a strong 10 percent increase in domestic production to 78,895 units in June, fueled by a 6.1 percent increase in domestic sales. Premacy, Carol and Bongo Van were all strong sellers.

Overseas Mazda production slid 17.4 percent to 22,344 units, despite a healthy 5.7 percent increase in exports to 49,905, the company said.

Mitsubishi Motors' domestic production rose on year for the first time since April 2004 as its domestic sales have been slow to recover from a slump after the recall of defective products last year.

Domestic sales grew 4.7 percent to 18,845 vehicles and exports increased 9.4 percent to 31,300 vehicles. Its overseas production was down 12.6 percent at 64,134 vehicles.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050728/ap_on_bi_ge/japan_auto_production_2

its just messed up but at least we know toyota nissan and honda are at the top of the list. even though they have gone up and down.

From the article it just sounds like their north american production fell, but their japanese/european production went up alot more... so globally, they are probably producing more cars...