AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)06/25 Report--

Affected by the COVID-19 epidemic, many car companies are still unable to restore the performance of the same period last year in 2020, which is more than halfway through the year. Toyota recently announced that it plans to cut production by 10% in the global market in July to ensure that there is no excess demand.

According to Toyota, in order to curb the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic, global car companies were forced to close their factories at the beginning of this year, and with the epidemic under some effective control and slowly rising demand, many car companies are also working to restore production. However, in Japan, affected by the epidemic is still in a weak state, the company has to continue to reduce production plans.

As a result, the company will suspend production on six production lines in three assembly plants for a total of 16 days in July, while reducing the shift of three production lines in two of the assembly plants from two to one. In addition, only four production lines will be operated in three factories on Saturday next month.

The production line of Kosda, including Toyota, will be closed for six days, and the production lines of Landcool Luze and Porte will be closed for two days. Toyota will also abolish the Saturday shift of four other production lines, including RAV4 Rongfang and the Prius. Therefore, for the Chinese market, imported models may have a certain impact.

In fact, Toyota had planned to produce 700000 new cars worldwide in July, but under the new plan it will now cut production by more than 71000. In fact, Toyota also plans to maintain production at its second production line at its Gifu plant by shifting one shift from its previous two production lines until September.

According to Toyota's latest figures, Toyota's family car production fell 26% in April from a year earlier to 218054 units. According to Toyota's forecast, between April and July this year, Toyota produced about 30% less globally and than originally planned for the same period last year.

However, Toyota also said that although production had not yet returned to normal levels before the outbreak, production had improved in July compared with a 20 per cent reduction in June, and production was expected to fully recover after August.

In fact, the outbreak of novel coronavirus in Japan led to weak sales of new cars, leading many brands to plan to cut production. Honda said on June 12 that production at its three passenger car factories in Japan would be suspended in July due to the spread of the novel coronavirus epidemic, and that production of 9500 cars was expected to be affected by the shutdown at the three plants.

Nissan also said on June 19 that it would reduce more production shifts due to reduced market demand. Its two factories in Kyushu will cancel all night shifts from June 29 to July 31 and July 20 to July 31. And its plant in Kanagawa Prefecture will be closed for two days in July, while the plant in Tochigi Prefecture will be closed for eight days in July.

Unlike the three car companies, the Mazda brand will fully restore all factories in Japan due to the epidemic, and will resume the day shift and night shift double work mode at the end of July to make up for the capacity lost due to the epidemic in the first half of the year. It is reported that the last Japanese factory that has not resumed work will be reopened on July 27.

Obviously, the four Japanese car companies have all been hit to varying degrees by the epidemic, and it is calculated that the sales of the four major Japanese car companies fell by 54.4% in April. Of these, Toyota sold 423000 new cars worldwide in April (including Lexus, excluding Daihatsu and Hino), down 46.3 per cent from a year earlier, while Nissan sold 217000 vehicles in April, down 42.6 per cent from a year earlier. Mazda sold 50362 new cars worldwide in April, down 54 per cent from a year earlier, the fourth consecutive month of decline, while Honda's global sales fell 43 per cent in April.

Generally speaking, the continued impact of the COVID-19 epidemic this year seems to have a great impact on Japan's local market. Many months have passed since the outbreak occurred in Japan in March, but the market has still failed to recover. It will also bring a large loss of profits to many car companies, so that many car companies can achieve a balance of performance and profits through only the growth of China. The performance of the four major Japanese brands in China returned to the same period or even higher in May this year.

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