Japan new vehicle sales hit 30-year low

[HenryTo]

Latest monthly sales of new autombiles in Japan just hit a 30-year low. Note that this excludes sales of "mini vehicles" (cars with a displacement of less than 0.66 liters).
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AFX News Limited

Japan new vehicle sales fall for 5th straight month in Nov - UPDATE
12.01.2005, 02:44 AM

TOKYO (AFX) - Domestic sales of new cars, trucks and buses, excluding mini-vehicles fell for the fifth consecutive month in November and are bound to end the year down from 2004 amid rising fuel prices and as consumers prefer to buy flat TVs and mobile phones, the Japan Automobile Dealers Association (JADA) said.

The association said sales of vehicles last month tumbled 8.2 pct year-on-year to 305,569 units, the lowest sales volume for the month of November since 1974 when it stood at 304,001.

'Sales of new vehicles, especially passenger cars, are weakening recently due to surging gasoline prices combined with a change in consumer behavior as consumers are increasingly becoming willing to buy more flat TVs and spend more on cellular phones,' a JADA official said.

'Due to the rapid slowdown of late, new auto sales are now destined to see a year-on-year decline in entire 2005 from a year earlier,' he added.

For the whole of 2004, new vehicle sales reached 3.962 mln units, but accumulated sales between January and November of this year reached only 3.654 mln units.

Passenger car sales slid 9.7 pct to 258,463 units while sales of buses jumped 23.8 pct to 1,161 units and truck sales rose 0.9 pct to 45,945 units.

Separately, the Japan Mini-Vehicle Association reported that sales of mini-vehicles in November increased 3.0 pct year-on-year to 157,737 units, rising for the eighth straight month, as consumers prefer buying more fuel-economy mini-cars.

Mini-vehicles account for about one in every three vehicles sold in Japan.

Sales last month fell at half of Japan's 12 automakers, including Toyota Motor Corp and Nissan Motor Co, the country's biggest and second-biggest car manufacturers.

But sales were higher at third-biggest maker Honda Motor Co and at fourth-ranked Mitsubishi Motors Corp.

Sales at Toyota, which makes more than four out of every 10 new cars sold in Japan, dropped 12.3 pct to 140,112 vehicles in November, down for the fifth straight month.

Sales of its upscale Lexus brand vehicles, which Toyota launched only at the end of August, reached 3,541 last month.

At Nissan, sales of regular-sized vehicles decreased 20.3 pct to 49,926 units, down for the second straight month. Nissan's sales were up for 12 straight months until September.

But sales at Honda increased 3.0 pct to 36,923 vehicles, rising for the third consecutive month.

Sales at loss-making Mitsubishi Motors rose for the sixth straight month after many months of decline triggered by a recall scandal. Sales of regular-sized MMC vehicles jumped 34.2 pct to 7,976 units.

In mid-October, Mitsubishi Motors launched Outlander new SUVs, its first new model in more than 20 months.

At Mazda Motor Corp, one-third owned by Ford Motor Co, sales dropped 10.2 pct to 15,624 units, the first fall in nine months, while sales of Subaru-brand vehicles eased 3.2 pct to 7,314 units, the fourth straight monthly drop.

Among truckmakers, sales at Isuzu Motors Ltd, the largest truck manufacturer, increased 6.5 pct to 6,666 units.

Sales at Hino Motors Ltd, a Toyota subsidiary and Japan's second-largest maker of trucks, rose 16.8 pct to 4,892 units, and by 13.3 pct to 1,410 units at Nissan Diesel, Japan's fourth-largest truckmaker.

Sales also rose at Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corp by 5.7 pct to 4,313 units. Mitsubishi Fuso had been involved in Mitsubishi Motor's recall scandal as MMC had controlled the truckmaker until last year. DaimlerChrysler AG now owns about 85 pct of Mitsubishi Fuso.

Among mini-vehicle makers, sales at Suzuki Motor Corp, the largest maker in this line, rose 9.5 pct to 52,229 units.

At Daihatsu Motor Co Ltd, Japan's second-largest mini-vehicle maker and another Toyota group company, sales jumped 6.7 pct to 48,786 units.

Mitsubishi Motors' mini-vehicle sales climbed 12.3 pct to 13,136 units while Nissan's sales gained 3.7 pct to 7,848 units. Nissan began selling mini-vehicles made by Mitsubishi Motors in June.

yasuhiko.seki@xfn.com

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