Toyota Motor Corporation’s TM shares inched down 0.1% on Feb 26, after the company reported a decline in both global and Japanese production, sales and exports in Jan 2015. The stock fell another 1.1% on Feb 27 due to the weakness in the market.
Toyota’s total worldwide production fell 3.2% year over year to 828,057 units in Jan 2015. The decline resulted from an 11.1% plunge in production in Japan to 338,349 units, which offset the 3.2% increase in production outside Japan to 489,708 units. The production figure includes passenger cars, trucks and buses manufactured by Toyota as well as its subsidiaries, Hino Motors, Ltd. and Daihatsu Motor Co., Ltd.
Total sales in Japan decreased 17.9% to 163,153 units, due to a 17.4% fall in sales of Daihatsu and a 19% decline in sales of Toyota, which offset the 11.6% rise in sales of Hino. The combined market share of Toyota, Hino and Daihatsu increased 0.6 percentage points to 40.6%.
Sales of Toyota mini-vehicles in Japan plunged 46% year over year to 1,925 units in January. The market share of Toyota in Japan inched up 0.04 percentage points to 26.9%, including mini-vehicles and 0.4 percentage points to 44.7%, excluding mini-vehicles.
Meanwhile, exports went down 3.1% year over year to 136,723 units, due to a 3.5% decline in Toyota’s exports and an 11.7% plunge in Daihatsu’s exports. The decline resulted from lower exports to North America, Latin America, Asia, Oceania, the Middle East and Africa.
It is worth noting that the lower production had been planned by Toyota due to expectations of lower sales this year. The company plans to produce 10.21 million vehicles globally this year, down 1% over 2014. Production in Japan is also likely to fall 6% to 3.97 million units. This will offset the 3% rise in production to 6.24 million vehicles, planned outside Japan.
Toyota projects a sales decline of 1% to 10.15 million units this year. The projected decrease in sales is due to a 9% decline expected in Japanese sales, which will offset a 2% improvement in sales outside Japan.
Toyota currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Better-ranked automobile stocks include Superior Industries International, Inc. SUP, Tata Motors Limited TTM and Wabash National Corp. WNC, all sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).
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