Source: CCTV Finance and Economics
On the 17th, two Japanese automakers, Toyota and Honda, released the news of production cuts one after another, indicating that the global scale of chip waste is further affecting Japanese automakers.
Toyota Motor Corp said on the 17thAll 14 factories in Japan will temporarily shut down production in October for up to 11 days.Toyota had previously announced that it would cut production by about 330000 vehicles worldwide in October, including 150000 in Japan. In additionHonda also announced on the 17th that from August to September this year, the company will produce about 60% fewer cars in Japan than originally planned.It is expected that production will still be reduced by about 30% in the first ten days of October.The main reason for the two car companies to cut production is still a shortage of chips.
A number of other Japanese car companies have also announced production reduction information one after another recently.According to statistics, Japanese car companies are expected to reduce production by at least 1.05 million vehicles in the 2021 fiscal year to the end of March next year, equivalent to 15% of the total passenger car production of Japanese car companies in the previous fiscal year.Suzuki is expected to cut production by 350000 vehicles, ranking first among Japanese automakers.
The chip shortage has also affected overseas sales of Japanese car companies. According to the latest statistics, six Japanese car companies, including Toyota, lost about 370000 vehicles in China in August, down 20.8 per cent from the same period last year. In addition, the sales of the four Japanese car companies that have released data also fell by about 380000 vehicles in the US market last month.
On the other hand, the waste of chips has brought an impact on the production management of Japanese car companies. The mode of production represented by Toyota Motor Corp's "just in time" (just in time) emphasizes that "only when necessary, produce the necessary products according to the necessary quantity", reduce the inventory of spare parts as much as possible, so as to improve the production efficiency. However, in the face of the chip shortage, Japanese car companies began to adjust this model. Toyota, for example, is reported to be increasing its chip inventory from three months to five months. Although the Japanese automobile manufacturing industry has formed a vertical division of labor system dominated by the whole vehicle enterprises, chip manufacturers are not in this system, and car companies are not in a dominant position in the face of chip manufacturers.Therefore, even after the end of this round of chip shortage, Japanese car companies to increase chip inventory may become the norm.