Report: Japanese companies to cut car production in China by 50%

Filed under: China, Japan, Honda, Nissan, Toyota, Earnings/Financials

Automotive News reports Japanese manufacturers are set to cut production in China by half. Toyota, Nissan and Honda have seen sales fall off by steep margins in the People's Republic after a territorial dispute between Japan and China resulted in anti-Japanese protests. Sales of Japanese goods have declined amid calls for boycotts all over China. As a result, Nissan is currently planning to halt the night shift at its two Chinese facilities. Toyota and Honda, meanwhile, will reduce production by cutting back work hours and slowing production lines. The news comes courtesy of a report in the Nikkei newspaper, but has not been confirmed by the manufacturers themselves.

There's no indication as to how long the cut in production will last.

As Automotive News points out, Japanese manufacturers were already scaling back production to meet demand before the protests broke out. The Chinese economy is currently in its slowest period of growth in the past three years. Even so, the shift away from Japanese vehicles has seen Hyundai sales jump by 15 percent last month. Likewise, Audi saw it's numbers swell by 20 percent, and BMW enjoyed a boost of 55 percent.

Japanese companies to cut car production in China by 50% originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 09 Oct 2012 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.autoblog.com/2012/10/09/japanese-companies-to-cut-car-production-in-china-by-50/

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