Vehicle production in Japan has nearly halved after the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami disaster. Exprots of newly built up vehicles thus are greatly affected by the difficult conditions of carmakers.
Exports of Toyota vehicles declined more than 60% from a year earlier to 42,313 untis in May. Honda and Mazda also saw reductions in their exports by about 60% and 40%, respectively.
Even for Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors, in which vehicle production is rapidly recovering among other carmakers, exports were down 5% and 12%, respectively.
From June, carmakers’ production is likely to track on normal pace.
However, due to strong yen (especially against the dollar), carmakers are reluctant to ship many vehicles from Japan to overseas even if they see a recovery in vehicle production.
