Sales of Japanese cars fell by 18% in October before the earthquake

In March of this year, a major earthquake in Japan caused a turmoil in the Japanese auto industry and also rewritten the global auto market pattern.

After more than six months of buffering and adjustment, the Japanese automobile industry is slowly out of the shadow of a major earthquake. In the latest market data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, the sales of passenger cars from January to October this year were 1,758,400, a decrease of 18% from the same period last year.

On November 8, 10 Japanese automakers, including Toyota Motor Corporation, Honda Motor Co., and Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., respectively published semi-annual reports for the fiscal year 2011 (April 2011-March 2012). According to the report, 6 out of 10 Japanese auto makers are in a deep recession.

In September, Japanese manufacturers resumed normal production in succession, but the recent flooding in Thailand has caused Japan’s auto manufacturers to suffer the second major blow. Market analysts said that the current losses caused by flooding in Thailand cannot be predicted for the time being, so companies that do not have annual operating deficits are not excluded.

Judging from the statistics of automobile production and sales, Toyota may miss the ranking of the world's first this year, and Volkswagen is expected to take over, and the world's automobile structure will undergo profound changes.

Profit declines Toyota Motor Corp. said Toyota’s operating profit in the first half of the year was reduced from a total of 323.1 billion yen in the same period of last year to a deficit of 32.5 billion yen. Revenue was 17.2% lower than the same period of last year and was only 8 trillion 15.9 billion. JPY. It is expected that sales will be reduced by 290,000 units in the Japanese domestic market in the entire year, with a loss of 320 billion yen. At the same time, due to the appreciation of the yen, foreign exchange losses of 130 billion yen were incurred.

The yen exchange rate used by Japanese automakers for settlement is mostly set at the level of one US dollar to 80 yen, but now the yen has soared to 75 yen, causing these companies to suffer huge exchange rate losses, resulting in a drop in corporate profits.

However, China has become one of the fastest growing markets for Toyota's sales. In October this year, Toyota's sales in the Chinese market reached 81,600 units, an increase of 32.5% over the same period of last year. Accumulated sales in the first 10 months reached 693,600 vehicles, an increase of 7.8% over the same period of last year. It is reported that the subsequent impact of the earthquake on Toyota in the Chinese region has passed. Toyota is still committed to selling 900,000 vehicles in China this year. The current situation is very close to this target.

In October, Dongfeng Nissan sold 71,000 vehicles, up 36% year-on-year; from January to October, Dongfeng Nissan sold 658,000 vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 19.3%.

According to industry sources, although the production capacity of Japanese cars has been restored, the impact of natural disasters, recalls and other events on brands will persist for a long time. Yan Jinghui, deputy general manager of the Beichen Yayuncun Automotive Trading Market Center in Beijing, said that although the earthquake and tsunami were direct events that caused it to lose its market, the quality trust crisis caused by multiple recalls also impacted the brand image and greatly affected consumers. Confidence in Japanese car brands is more permanent than direct economic losses.

Price reduction and quantity The rapid recovery of Japanese car manufacturers in the domestic market is due to a number of reasons, but the most important reason is still the marketing strategy based on the price system.

The head of marketing of a Japanese brand 4S store told the “Daily Economic News” reporter that the manufacturers' instructions to dealers in the second half of this year were very clear, that is “to increase sales at all costs”.

Among them, Guangzhou Automobile Honda is one of the highest among domestic automakers. According to previous news, Guangqi Honda will “pull out” 1 billion yuan for marketing in the second half of the year to ensure that Accord’s sales championship in the mid-to-high-end market segment will be maintained. In order to achieve this goal, if Guangben dealers complete 110% of the Accord lift-car task in the second half of the year, the manufacturer will give a rebate of 2,000 yuan per car for the year-end rebate. Although this claim has not been officially approved by Guangzhou Automobile Honda, from the price cut of the Accord in the market, it can still be seen that Guangqi Honda is trying hard to regain lost land.

Dongfeng Nissan, which performed well in the first half of the year, is even the "profit winner" of the price war. In June, when Accor, Camry and other models were still under production due to the impact of the earthquake, Xintianhao launched a price reduction of up to 40,000 yuan in one fell swoop, and won the sales championship for that level of the month.

“FAW Toyota will sprint its annual sales target.” Tian Ming, deputy general manager of FAW Toyota, made it clear at the mid-August press conference. Although sales volume was reduced due to the earthquake in the first half of the year, FAW Toyota did not intend to adjust its annual target and will achieve the annual sales target of 550,000 vehicles. In July, sales volume exceeded 5.7 million units, ranking from 9th to 6th, thanks to the dual effects of capacity recovery and marketing.

"The increase in sales in July is the result of comprehensive efforts by FAW Toyota's experiential marketing and the emphasis on customer service," Tian said.

The market structure “Japanese” lost nearly half of the Beijing-Shanghai imported car market. This year, the Japanese brand car exports to China were deeply affected. In Beijing and Shanghai, two important imported car consumer markets, the share of Japanese imported cars was lost by nearly half.

Yan Jinghui said that from the end of April this year until August, Japanese imported cars had been undersupply and they had to give up the market.

At the same time, the yen has continued to appreciate. Data from the People's Bank of China shows that 100 yen has risen from 7.6852 yuan at the beginning of April to 8.3520 yuan at the end of October, and the cumulative increase has reached 8.7%, and it only recently rebounded. According to Toyota estimates, a 1 yen increase in the exchange rate means that Toyota's annual operating profit fell by 450 million U.S. dollars.

“The appreciation of the yen has caused the profit margins of Japanese import car dealers to be squeezed, and price promotions have been somewhat overpowered.” Yan Jinghui said that at the moment in the Asian Games Village automobile market, there are few models for Japanese imported cars, and sales promotion is obviously not as strong. Europe, the United States, South Korea imported cars.

At present, Toyota Motor's domestic production ratio in Japan is about 43.1%, Honda Motors is about 27.2%, and Nissan Motors is about 25.8%. If, in order to circumvent the downturn in sales of local markets due to the economic downturn, high production costs, and difficulties in exporting due to the appreciation of the yen, shifting production to low-cost areas and implementing “ready-to-use goods,” the resulting Negative effects are also inevitable. Among them, Mazda is a typical example. Its exports account for 80% of domestic production. The continuous appreciation of the yen caused a loss of 23 billion yen from April to June of fiscal year 2011.

Right now, Toyota, Nissan, and Honda, the three major auto makers in Japan, originally planned to gradually increase their production capacity to make up for the losses caused by the earthquake. However, due to the floods in Thailand, the plan had to be shelved.

Thailand is one of the important production bases for Japanese automakers. The president of the Japan Automobile Industry Association Shiga Jun said that Japanese automobile factories and supply chain systems are currently affected by the flooding in Thailand. If the factory's production time is extended, Japanese automakers will Reduce production of 6,000 cars.

Toyota Motor Corp. said it will restart part of its production at its Thai plant on November 21. This flood will reduce its production in Thailand by approximately 87,000 vehicles. The Japanese plant will reduce its production by approximately 40,000 vehicles. The current loss caused by floods is currently still Can not estimate.

Masataka Kunugimoto, an analyst at Nomura Securities, estimates that a one-month shutdown of the Thai plant will result in Toyota’s annual operating profit reduction of 25 billion yen, Honda’s decline of 8 billion yen, and daily production of 7 billion yen.

It is understood that Honda Motor Co. has notified US dealers that it said that its output will only reach 70% of its normal level by December. Toyota Motor Corp. also canceled the overtime rotation system in the United States and other factories this week, saying that the shortage of parts caused the failure of normal production.

Due to the reduced production and slow recovery of Japanese cars, Korean car dealers took the opportunity to take the lead, while the German and European and American car dealers are also actively exploring the market, and the market structure is therefore undergoing fission.