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Global car sales by Japanese automakers fell 30 percent in March as the COVID-19 epidemic spread around the world, Reuters reported. At the same time, with the deepening of the epidemic crisis, sales will decline further in the coming months.

In March, seven Japanese carmakers sold 1.82 million vehicles worldwide, down 34 per cent from 2.77 million in the same period last year. Toyota sold 779151 vehicles worldwide in March, down 22.6 per cent from the same period last year; Nissan sold 315194 vehicles last month, down 43 per cent from a year earlier; and Mazda's March sales fell 33 per cent to 103400, the biggest drop at the end of the month since 2004.

Global sales by seven Japanese carmakers fell 7.3 per cent to 26.5 million vehicles in the 2019 fiscal year to March, the lowest in four years. Toyota sold 10.4566 million vehicles in fiscal year 2019, down 1.4% from a year earlier. Nissan's sales in fiscal 2019 fell 13.2% to 4.7916 million, the worst sales since 2011 and the first time it sold less than 5 million vehicles in seven years. Mazda sold 1.41 million vehicles in fiscal year 2019, down 9% from a year earlier, the first time in nearly five years that sales were less than 1.5 million.

As a result of the outbreak, most car factories have temporarily shut down production, the auto industry has come to a standstill, losses caused by the shutdown are increasing, and a number of car companies, including Toyota and Nissan, are seeking financing to tide over the difficulties.

Toyota sought a credit line totaling 1 trillion yen (66.4 billion yuan) from two large Japanese banks, Sumitomo Mitsui Bank and Mitsubishi UFJ Bank, according to Kyodo News. Nissan received a credit line of 500 billion yen (33.2 billion yuan) from a banking group led by Mizuho Bank last week, a move that could avoid Nissan's funding problems during the outbreak. Another Japanese car company, Mitsubishi Motors, has applied for 300 billion yen (19.9 billion yuan) in loans from domestic and foreign lenders to cope with the severe impact of the novel coronavirus epidemic.

In addition, some Japanese car companies also plan to cut factory capacity. Among them, Toyota plans to cut Japanese factory capacity by 50% in May and 40% in June; Nissan plans to cut Japanese factory capacity by 78% in May and 43% in June. Mitsubishi Motors also plans to cut domestic production by 1/3 and cut senior executives' salaries by nearly half in the next two months to cope with the decline in sales caused by the COVID-19 epidemic.

Chris Richter, a senior analyst at CLSA in France, expects global sales of Japanese automakers to fall sharply last month, indicating that Japanese carmakers' annual profits in fiscal 2019 were much lower than expected. In addition, affected by the epidemic, sales of Japanese automakers are still in a state of decline, and sales are expected to decline by about 35% in fiscal year 2020, resulting in operating losses for most Japanese automakers in fiscal year 2020.

At present, many countries require residents to stay at home to control the spread of the epidemic, resulting in a sharp decline in car demand, while there are many uncertainties about the impact on the global economy. Goldman Sachs predicts that the COVID-19 outbreak will reduce the total operating profit of Japan's major automakers by 38% in the current fiscal year (March 2020-March 2021), but compared with the global financial crisis more than a decade ago, these carmakers are likely to rebound faster. Once the epidemic is coming to an end, the demand for cars will recover quickly.

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