Japan's domestic car production in July continued to rise by 12.7pc from a year earlier to 737,254 units. But the growth rate is declining, largely because a rebound from Covid-19-related output cuts is nearing its end.
The country's eight major car producers reported on 30 August that their July output increased from a year earlier, reflecting continuing recovery from semi-conductor shortages. Toyota's July production marked seven consecutive months of year-on-year increases.
The pace of the country's overall production recovery has slowed. Year-on-year growth rates exceeded 40pc and 20pc in April and May respectively, but fell to around 15pc in June. This trend persisted in July with the growth rate dropping by 3.2 percentage points from June, underscoring views that the post-Covid-19 pandemic recovery phase is coming to an end.
Domestic production in August will also be impacted by a shutdown of Toyota's domestic plants following a system failure on 29 August. The company fully resumed operations on 30 August, but the shutdown could lead to a reduction of over 10,000 units in production. Toyota produced around 14,000 units/d and 11,000 units/d in June and August 2022, respectively.
| Japan's car production (units)* | ||||
| July '23 | June '23 | July '22 | y-o-y ± % | |
| Toyota | 308,686 | 312,865 | 221,817 | 39.2 |
| Daihatsu | 52,948 | 45,829 | 70,313 | -24.7 |
| Mazda | 72,232 | 68,503 | 70,025 | 3.2 |
| Subaru | 61,432 | 57,196 | 59,718 | 2.9 |
| Honda | 58,972 | 56,533 | 61,568 | -4.2 |
| Suzuki | 82,240 | 80,490 | 79,141 | 3.9 |
| Mitsubishi | 43,042 | 43,271 | 43,336 | -0.7 |
| Nissan | 57,702 | 55,673 | 48,245 | 19.6 |
| Total | 737,254 | 720,360 | 654,163 | 12.7 |
| Source: Japanese car makers | ||||
| * Excludes commercial vehicles | ||||
