AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)04/27 Report--

On April 27th, Toyota Motor Group released production and sales figures for March 2022 and fiscal year 2021. According to the data, Toyota's global sales fell to 903031 vehicles in March 2022, down 8.1 per cent from a year earlier, of which domestic sales in Japan were 163786, down 14.4 per cent from a year earlier. In terms of production, Toyota produced 866775 vehicles worldwide in March 2022, up 2.8 per cent from a year earlier, of which domestic production in Japan was 261759, down 15.8 per cent from a year earlier.

For Japan's local production fell 15.8% in March, Toyota said it was mainly affected by semiconductor shortages, supplier system failures and earthquake shutdowns. On March 1, Toyota suspended operations at all its plants in Japan, including 28 production lines at 14 plants. Affected by this, Toyota's production of about 13000 vehicles was affected. Toyota announced a temporary suspension of work at two of its Japanese factories on March 9-10 as a result of cyber attacks on parts companies, affecting the production of about 3000 vehicles. Toyota suspended production at 11 factories and 18 production lines for three days on March 16 due to a massive power outage caused by a 7.4-magnitude earthquake near Fukushima prefecture in Japan. Toyota has previously said that it lost 140000 vehicles in January as a result of the epidemic, and expects to lose 100000 to 200000 vehicles in March due to chip supply bottlenecks, and total production losses could be as high as 480000 vehicles from January to March this year. According to the latest figures released by Toyota Motor today, Toyota's cumulative global sales in the first three months of this year were 2356525, down 4.2 per cent from 2460124 last year, and global production was 2238662, down 0.6 per cent from 2253098 last year.

As for Toyota's sales performance in China, Guangzhou Auto Toyota in March became the only joint venture with positive growth among the top 10 Chinese manufacturers and the fastest growing joint venture, with sales of 88048 vehicles in March, up 26.9 per cent from a year earlier. However, FAW Toyota fell 17.3 per cent to 58239 vehicles compared with the same period last year.

Public data show that in the first quarter of this year, GAC Toyota sold 247006 vehicles, an increase of 23.4% over the same period last year. The cumulative retail sales of FAW Toyota reached 159397 units, a sharp drop of 18.3% compared with the same period last year. It is worth noting that this is the first quarter of the third consecutive year that FAW Toyota has lagged behind Guangzhou Auto Toyota. The main reason for the decline in this quarter is due to the factory shutdown caused by the epidemic. Among them, in January this year, FAW Toyota dropped the most. In January, FAW Toyota fell 46.0% to 41000 vehicles compared with the same period last year. The imported luxury brand Lexus, affected by a shortage of spare parts, sold only 17500 vehicles in January, down 27.9% from a year earlier. Affected by the epidemic in Tianjin, FAW-Toyota stopped production at its Tianjin plant on January 13, affecting a number of best-selling models, including Corolla, Crown Lufang and Asian Dragon. then, in March, FAW-Toyota's plant in Changchun was also affected by the plant shutdown capacity.

For the full-year performance of fiscal year 2021 (April 2021-March 2022), the data showed that although the year was still hit by the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic and chip supply shortages, Toyota still achieved growth in sales and production. In terms of sales, Toyota sold 9511558 vehicles worldwide in fiscal 2021, up 4.7% from 9087303 in fiscal 2020 and the second-highest annual sales in history. In terms of production, Toyota produced 8569549 vehicles worldwide in fiscal 2021, up 4.7% from 8182944 in fiscal 2020 and roughly in line with the previous forecast of 8.5 million. However, taking a specific look at Toyota's local market, Toyota's production and sales data showed a double decline in fiscal 2021. Due to the disruption of the parts supply chain and the shortage of semiconductors caused by the epidemic, Toyota produced 2760843 vehicles in Japan in fiscal 2021, a decrease of 5.4% from the previous year and the lowest in nearly 45 years since 1976 (2.58 million). Toyota sold 1395920 vehicles in Japan in fiscal 2021, down 9.3% from the previous year and falling for the second year in a row.

In fact, Toyota's initial production for fiscal year 2021 is currently 9.3 million vehicles, but Toyota has had to cut its production plans for fiscal year 2021 several times because of outbreaks and parts shortages. Looking back at the start of the 2021 fiscal year, Toyota confidently set a production target of 9.3 million vehicles, and then lowered its production target of 9.3 million vehicles to 9 million vehicles due to the influence of the supply chain. On December 15, 2021, Toyota announced its plan to produce 800000 vehicles worldwide in January 2022 and stressed that the target of 9 million vehicles in fiscal year 2021 (April 2021-March 2022) would remain unchanged, and the previous shutdown would not affect the annual production target of 9 million vehicles, but it was not long before Toyota's production plans were affected on a large scale. In February this year, Toyota announced that due to the suspension of production of 11 production lines at eight factories in Japan, including the Aichi Wancho plant in February, coupled with a shortage of semiconductors, Toyota expects production of new cars at home and abroad to be about 150000 fewer than planned in February, with global production of about 700000 vehicles, and its sales target for fiscal year 2021 (April 2021-March 2022) will also be lower than the previously announced forecast of 9 million. According to the original plan, Toyota had planned to increase production to the highest level in March to recover the production losses caused during the previous chip crisis, but due to supply chain factors and other factors, Toyota again reduced car production in March this year. After adjusting 100000 vehicles, the global production plan was finally confirmed at 950000, while the projected production for the fiscal year ending March 2022 was also adjusted to 8.5 million. From 9.3 million vehicles to later, due to the epidemic and parts shortage, we had to reduce 9.3 million vehicles to 8.5 million vehicles. From the reduced production of 800000 vehicles, it is not difficult to see the impact of the epidemic and supply chain shortages on Toyota's capacity.

Entering the new fiscal year 2022 (April 2022-March 2023), Toyota is also facing the problem of epidemic spread and supply chain instability. Toyota plans to cut production capacity in Japan's domestic market by 20% in the three months starting in April, in order to ease the pressure on suppliers caused by shortages of chips and other components. Toyota's new production plan for the April-June period in 2022 was cut from 2.8 million to 2.5 million, a reduction of about 300000 vehicles compared with the original plan, of which the production capacity is expected to be reduced by 20 per cent in April by 150000 vehicles, by about 10 per cent in May by 100000 vehicles, and by about 5 per cent in June.

On April 18, Toyota announced on its website that a number of local factories in Japan would stop production for several days in May, including the Takaoka plant in Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture, and the Takahara Plant in Tadahara City, Aichi Prefecture, a total of 9 factories and 10 production lines. Among them, the longest shutdown time is the No. 1 production line at the Miyada plant in Kyushu and the No. 2 production line at the Fujimatsu body factory, both of which have been shut down for 6 days. The shortest shutdown time is the No. 3 production line of the Tiahara factory, which only stops production for one day.

As a result, Toyota announced that it would cut global production by 10 per cent to 750000 vehicles in May, with production falling to 200000 in Japan and 550000 in overseas markets. In addition, Toyota says it produces an average of about 800000 vehicles a month from May to July this year, in other words, it is expected to produce about 2.4 million vehicles from May to July 2022. In this regard, Toyota stressed that due to the COVID-19 epidemic and semiconductor shortage, the next few months of production is difficult to predict. As for this year's production plan, Toyota has previously said that it is difficult to predict this year's production due to the continued spread in Southeast Asia and the shortage of chips, but Toyota pointed out that the impact will be minimized.

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