Nissan is going to invest $7.7 billion into the world’s largest car market…no not the United States…China!
Nissan entered into a joint venture with China’s Dongfeng Motor, and together they’re investing billions to boost car production in China. They expect to produce 2.3 million vehicles per year by 2015.
Nissan’s U.S. sales mirror that of Toyota, up at the beginning of the year, but down by the end of May.
Nissan/Renault announced they plan to expand their global market share by 8% (an increase of about 10 million cars by 2017). How are they going to do that? Definitely not by selling more cars in the United States.
Nissan/Renault says it will expand sales in China, India and Brazil. They will boost production in China and India, and build a new factory in Brazil, that will produce 200,000 cars per year.
They will also buy more than 50% stake in Russian car maker Avtovaz.
Japanese vehicle makers announced they’ve lost billions since the March 11 disasters.
Toyota was the biggest loser at $1.3 billion. Honda lost $900 million and Nissan almost $500 million.
The biggest problem for the Japanese car makers is the loss of production, due to lack of parts. The lack of parts is due to the “just in time” supply model that most of Japan’s industries rely on. This model means that the big producers do not make their own parts, and they don’t keep a lot of spare parts on hand. Instead they rely on smaller producers to supply those parts. Also, the smaller producers can not keep a stockpile of parts on hand, because they can’t afford to.
The March 11 disasters resulted in 60% of Japan’s nuclear plants going off line. Japan’s industries are almost totally reliant on electricity from the nuclear power plants. The result was factories all over Japan shut down.
Japanese car makers didn’t even try to forecast their performance for the next year, because the lack of electrical power will continue, at least ’till the end of the year.
Toyota announced that production at its factories will not return to pre-March 11 levels, until December. Toyota expects 2011 production levels to be lower than 2009.
Production in Japan will not pick up until July. Production at all other Toyota plants will remain low until August. And that’s a best guess: “We don’t know how the production recovery curve will shape up.”-Atsushi Niimi, Toyota Executive Vice President
Toyota officials pointed out that in today’s car factories it only takes one missing part to shut down production. Especially when it comes to electronic parts.
Toyota is now cutting production at its Thailand factory by 50%, starting April 25. Honda and Nissan have announced similar cuts at their Thailand factories.
Nissan is investigating why its electric car, the Leaf, won’t start. Several customers, in Japan and United States, are complaining that their Leafs won’t start.
Nissan thinks it is related to the air conditioner sensor: “…it will illuminate a warning light on the instrument panel and may cause the vehicle to not restart once it has been turned off.”-Katherine Zachary, Nissan’s North American unit
“Output reduction in Japan and overseas will most likely continue until September.”-Kohei Takahasi, JPMorgan Chase & Co. in Tokyo
Toyota expects to lose 35,000 vehicles from the North American shut down, and that’s spread over five days. The problem is that, because of continued nuclear power issues, it looks like parts supply is not going to improve anytime soon.
Almost 70 percent of the Toyota vehicles sold in the U.S., are put together in North America, but, about 85 percent of the parts and materials come from Japan.
The North American car market is important for Toyota, making up about 60% of their profits.
On April 8, Citigroup downgraded Toyota stock to ‘sell’. Citigroup said the downgrade was because Toyota has not addressed the problems created by the lack of electrical power in Japan. It’s clear the lack of power in Japan will go on for longer than expected.
Japan’s NHK is reporting that Japanese car maker Toyota is extending its plant closers. Other auto manufactures are joining Toyota in closing down operation. These include, Honda and Nissan.
It is not damage to their factories that caused them to shut down, it is the near total destruction of Japans infrastructure. There is no power, and because roads are destroyed employees and supply of parts can not get to the factories.
The near total lose of infrastructure, in the northern half of the state of Honshu, guarantees that there will be no economic recovery for Japan, in the short run. The northern area of Honshu is home to many of Japan’s major factories. This include factories that are for other products, besides automobiles. If they can not operate, they can not sell anything. Don’t forget that the area’s agriculture industry has been wiped out.
The only way Japan can recover quickly is with economic help equal to what the United States provided after World War 2, and the U.S. is not able to do that now.