Tokyo/Seoul: Japanese new vehicle sales in April halved, sinking to the lowest monthly tally on record, as domestic automakers felt the full brunt of the March 11 earthquake that caused unprecedented disruption to car production.
In stark contrast, the fortunes of South Korea's Hyundai Motor and affiliate Kia Motors brightened, as they benefited from the Japanese automakers' woes to post double-digit growth in global sales for the month.
Sales of vehicles excluding 660cc microcars in Japan fell 51.0 per cent from the year before to 108,824 units last month, with market leader Toyota Motor Corp putting in the worst performance with a 69 per cent drop.
The market's contraction marked the biggest-ever drop in monthly vehicle sales and was the lowest volume since January 1968, when records began.
Combined with 660cc vehicles, tallied separately, new vehicles sales in the world's third-biggest auto market declined 47.3 per cent to 185,673 vehicles, data showed on Monday.
Components
"We can't say we've hit bottom," said Michiro Saito, general manager at the Japan Automobile Dealers Association (JADA), which compiles the non-mini vehicles data.
"Even now, many automakers are producing at only 50 per cent of initial plans," he said, adding that sales will likely continue to drop from the year before for the rest of 2011.
Market leaders Toyota, Nissan Motor Co and Honda Motor Co have been forced to slash production globally as the magnitude-9.0 earthquake and ensuing tsunami damaged much of Japan's northeastern seaboard, cutting off the delivery of hundreds of components.
With Japanese automakers unable to fill orders, imports, led by Volkswagen AG and Daimler's Mercedes-Benz, have been picking up much of the slack. Sales in Japan of imported cars, which include some domestic brands made overseas, grew 42.8 per cent in April to 16,627 units. "Some dealers are hoping that automakers will shift some vehicles meant for export or cars made overseas to Japan," JADA's Saito said.
Hyundai's global sales grew 9.7 per cent to 340,647 in April, while Kia's sales rose 17.8 per cent to 205,603.
"Hyundai and Kia are also expected to post a record-high US market share for April, benefiting from Japan's production disruption," said Lee Sang-hyun, an analyst at NH Investment & Securities.
"Strong sales in China and other emerging markets led the sales gains of Hyundai and Kia, while the domestic market was solid," he added. Hyundai and Kia last week posted stellar profits for the January to March period.