The two natural disasters that hit Japan on March 11, the 8.9 offshore earthquake and the subsequent Tsunami that devastated the country and took many human lives, has also hit hard production and sales of Japanese car manufacturers.
Toyota said on Monday that its domestic passenger car production for the first half of 2011 dropped by 38% to 947,090 units and its overseas production by 11.7% to 1,923,408 units compared to the same period in 2010 units due to the lack of parts.
As a result, January to June domestic passenger car sales decreased by 43.4% and exports by 31.9%, to 450,463 and 532,364 units respectively. It is the first time in two years that the Japan’s largest carmaker has experienced a decrease in sales.
The good news is that Toyota’s domestic and overseas factories were already operating at 90% of their capability in June, and are expected to return to near pre-earthquake levels by the end of July and in full capacity in November.
Moreover, Toyota plans to produce an additional 350,000 vehicles in Japan from October until March 2012 to make up for the year-to-date loss in production and sales.
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