AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)05/30 Report--

On May 30, Toyota Motor Group released production and sales figures for April 2022. Toyota's global sales fell 11.1 per cent year-on-year to 763708 in April 2022, with domestic sales falling 16.8 to 103143 and overseas sales down 10.2 per cent to 660565, according to the data. On the production side, Toyota's global production fell 9.1 per cent to 692259 vehicles in April 2022 from a year earlier, with Japanese domestic production falling 9.0 per cent to 243425 vehicles.

With regard to the decline in production and sales data in April, Toyota said that it was mainly due to a shortage of spare parts caused by the spread of the epidemic and increased demand for semiconductors, which forced some Toyota factories to stop work or cut production. Toyota's sales and production in April were lower than those of the previous year.

According to specific analysis, in terms of production, as early as March 17 this year, Toyota announced that due to the epidemic and supply chain disruptions, Toyota would cut global production by 150000 to 750000 vehicles in April this year, including about 250000 vehicles in the Japanese market and about 500000 vehicles overseas. But as the final figures show, Toyota actually produced only 692259 vehicles worldwide in April, still 57741 fewer than expected, the first year-on-year decline in three months.

On the sales side, delays in new car delivery continued due to production cuts caused by the epidemic and semiconductor shortages. Toyota's global sales continued to fall 11.1% in April from a year earlier, marking the eighth consecutive month of year-on-year decline in Toyota's global sales and the biggest drop since October 2021 (down 20.1%). Regionally, the North American market fell 19.7% to 218837 vehicles, and the Chinese market dropped 30.7% to 111134 vehicles. In this regard, Toyota's sales in China are not optimistic, mainly because FAW Toyota's Changchun plant was forced to stop production on March 14 and then shut down for the whole of April, thus affecting the performance of the end market. The Changchun plant did not restart production until May 1. although the plant has returned to normal operation, it is certain that the suspension of production at the FAW Toyota plant in Changchun for one and a half months will have a significant impact on its sales. FAW Toyota had planned to achieve its annual sales target of 1 million vehicles this year. In addition, sales of imported premium car brand Lexus also fell sharply by 65.4% due to the continuing shortage of semiconductors worldwide. It should be noted that from the current situation of Japanese car companies, Toyota is not the only one showing a decline in production and sales data. in fact, since the beginning of fiscal year 2022, due to the epidemic, supply chain disruptions and rising raw material prices, the sales of many Japanese car companies are not satisfactory. Take the latest domestic data as an example, except Toyota Motor in China fell 30.7% year on year. Nissan's sales in China fell 46 per cent year-on-year to 69300, while Honda's sales in China fell 36.3 per cent to 95200.

And as we enter June, the overall performance of Japanese car companies does not seem to be satisfactory. Last week, for example, Toyota issued two notices to stop production and cut production in one week. On May 24th, Toyota pointed out that Toyota suspended operations at some local Japanese factories in May and June, respectively, due to a shortage of spare parts caused by the spread of the epidemic. Toyota announced on its website that its June production target would be cut by 100000 to 850000 vehicles. On May 27th, Toyota again cut its June production to 800000 vehicles, of which about 200000 are planned for the Japanese market and 600000 for overseas markets. However, Toyota stressed that the global average monthly production from June to August this year was about 850000 vehicles, that is, Toyota produced a total of about 2.55 million vehicles from June to August this year, and the production target for fiscal year 2022 (April 2022 to March 2023) remained unchanged at about 9.7 million vehicles. At the same time, Toyota also pointed out that production plans may be reduced in the future because of the continued closure in Shanghai and the unpredictable supply of spare parts. Judging from the fact that Toyota announced two shutdowns and cuts in production, Toyota's production capacity fell by 150000 vehicles in June, compared with the expected production of about 950000 in June.

According to the production target of 9.7 million in fiscal year 2022, Toyota needs to maintain its monthly production target at about 800000 vehicles, while Toyota produced only 692259 vehicles in the first month of fiscal year 2022 (April). However, the epidemic has improved, the supply chain problems of the automobile industry have been alleviated, and whether Toyota can maintain and speed up production will also become the focus of attention.

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