Automotive Exports March 2021

Japan automakers post 4.5%
output slump over chip shortages
The widespread chip shortages force
global auto industry to cut production.
Accordingly, the production at Japanese
automakers including Honda Motor Co
slipped 4.51% in January from last year.
The country’s seven major automakers,
including Toyota Motor Corp and Nissan
Motor Co’s, produced a combined 2.12
million vehicles last month, according to
Reuters calculations based on output data
released by the companies .
That compared with a 24% production
jump in December. The global automobile
industry has been grappling with a chip
shortage since the end of last year, with
the former U.S. administration’s sanctions
on Chinese chip factories adding to the
problem. Last month, global vehicle
production at Honda and Subaru fell 8.8%
and 29.2%, respectively, mostly due to the
semiconductor shortage.
Nissan Motor Co’s global production, on
the other hand, rose 2.4% in January from
a year before.
Honda and Nissan, Japan’s second and
third-largest automakers have said this
month they will sell a combined 250,000
fewer cars in the current financial year.
Elsewhere, automakers Suzuki
Motor Corp, Mazda Motor Corp and
Mitsubishi Motors Corp saw their global
production drop in January. But the
three automakers have said they have
seen no impact of the chip shortage on
production.
Toyota Motor, which said earlier this
month it had up to a four-month chip
inventory, notched a 1.9% rise in global
output, their fifth consecutive month
of gain. Total global vehicle sales at
Japan’s seven major automakers inched
down 0.98% year-on-year to 2.06 million
vehicles last month.
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