Japanese automakers' Apr global output down 21% on year

In April, Japan's eight major automakers produced approximately 1.63 million units across their global plants, down 20.6% on year for the second month, Mysteel Global calculated based on their latest respective data. Market sources shared that the decline was not only due to the continuing shortage of semi-conductors globally, but had largely to do with the impact from the COVID-induced lockdown in Shanghai.

Among the total, these automakers' April output at their Japanese plants declined by 19.3% on year, with only Subaru Corporation seeing its output higher on year because of the low base a year ago. The rest automakers had all adjusted their production plans lower due to logistics disruptions caused by the Shanghai lockdown and the delay in component deliveries.

"The lockdown in Shanghai had also forced Japanese automakers to lower output at their plants in China, which resulted their overall global output to decline largely," a Tokyo-based steel sheet trader explained.

Toyota Motor, Japan's largest automaker had produced a total of 93,297 vehicles at its Chinese plants in April, down 33.8% on year, while Honda Motor had been forced to trim output steeper in the month, producing 31,869 units in China, down 81.4% on year, according to the companies.

"We expect Japanese automakers' output in China and component deliveries from China to Japan will start improving after the lifting of the Shanghai lockdown on June 1. But we also believe the impact will remain for a while, and Japanese automakers may not be able to lift their output soon. So it will take some time for their steel consumption to pick up," the trader predicted.

Toyota Motor has decided to make further production cut in June at its Japanese plants due to the continuing delay in component deliveries from China, and it will stop operation for five days at 16 production lines at 10 plants since June 6, together with the same line stoppage from May 25-June 3 for five days at most.

"We heard Toyota would lose about 110,000 units of output at its Japanese plants amid the two-month-long lockdown in Shanghai," a second steel trader in Tokyo shared.

Steel consumed in passenger cars is about 700kg/unit on average, of which about 30% is special steel, Mysteel Global notes.

Written by Yoko Manabe, yoko.manabe@mysteel.com

Note: This article has been published in accordance with an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.