Japanese auto makers surpass GM in North American Vehicle Production
 

[04 Apr 2006]
OTTAWA (AFP)


Japanese automakers overtook US car giant General Motors in North American car and truck production in 2005 and all signs point to Asian dominance of the industry soon, a report showed.

Faced with growing losses in market share, GM reduced its production in the region to 4.6 million vehicles in 2005 while Japanese automakers boosted their assembly plant output in the region by 12 percent to 4.8 million cars and light trucks last year.

It is the first time on record Japanese car and truck manufacturers have surpassed the biggest of the so-called Big Three US automakers in North America, according to the report by Scotia Economics.

Meanwhile, a significant shift is underway globally that will make Asia -- already the world's largest vehicle-producing region -- the big winner as its share of global manufacturing capacity increases to an estimated 37 percent by the end of the decade, up from 34 percent in 2004, said Scotia Economics car analyst and report author Carlos Gomes.

"Despite rising North American vehicle output by foreign automakers, the region is losing its global dominance in vehicle assemblies," he said.

By late 2008 -- once GM and Ford's restructurings are complete -- North American assembly capacity will decline to an estimated 17 million units from the current 18 million, he said.

"At that point, North America will represent less than 20 percent of world capacity, down from 25 percent of output in 2005, and more than 30 percent as recently as the turn of the century."

Japanese manufacturers first started to produce vehicles in North America in 1985. General Motors assembled 7.4 million cars and trucks then, 6.8 million more than offshore manufacturers with assembly plants in the region.

In recent months, both GM and Ford have announced plans to close several facilities and eliminate about 2.4 million units of North American capacity through 2008.

"Once these restructuring initiatives are complete, North American capacity for the 'traditional' Big Three will likely drop below 10 million units, down from over 12.5 million in 2005," Gomes said.

In contrast, Japanese automakers have signaled plans to further expand their North American facilities.

Scotia Economics estimates that the assembly capacity of offshore manufacturers will climb by nearly 40 percent through 2008, lifting Asian and European assembly capacity to roughly 7.3 million units here.

While all three major Japanese car makers are expanding their North American capabilities, Toyota is the "most aggressive," according to the report.

Its facilities operated at 117 percent of normal capacity last year and it plans to boost its current 1.1 million capacity to 1.81 million units by 2008, Gomes said.

Toyota is building a new light truck plant in San Antonio, Texas and will add a new facility in Woodstock, Ontario. The new Canadian plant will ramp up production in 2008, and will have the capacity to produce 150,000 RAV4 crossover utility vehicles, Gomes said.

Korean automakers are also racing to catch up. Hyundai began production at its new facility in Montgomery, Alabama last year, and Kia Motors will follow in 2009.

source : sevihoo.com

G_G big three

I know you just post these things, Andrew.........you don't write them, but having said that, I'm not sure I can buy some of these so-called " statistics" about ultimate production and what country or continent actually produced the most. The global auto industry is just too complex.....everybody either owns everyone else or has a share in them. Vehicles are jointly designed, built, and sold all over the world in different countries.
These kinds of headlines, IMO, are written up by people who have nothing better to do with their time than to sit around and try and type " headlines " they think will sell, like TV ratings.
People who know cars and the industry, though, like many of us here on CAR CHAT, will see right through these so-called " reports ".

I checked the sevihoo.com website, BTW...the source of the report. It doesn't impress me much......it seems to me to be an organization that doesn't know a terribly lot about the international auto market and how it is organized.

well i tend not to spend much time on all the numbers and such in all these articles, but i pay attention to the content and what it's trying to say -- which i think is kinda true. for sure toyota is there, no one can have question about that. though it says japanese automakers, that i am kinda in doubt. honda and nissan, they are that close to gm?

I agree, Henry.....perhaps I could have reworded my last post a little differently, but the point I was trying to make is that, with the complexity of today's auto market, to try and determime which company, corporation, country......or even continent.......designs, builds, or sells the most cars IMO is rather futile. It's like closing your eyes and trying to guess the number of buisnesspeople walking the streets of New York City at any given moment.......Good Luck.

I think they're probably just going by the end product which represents the nationality of the companies , not the parts which make up the car. There's nothing wrong with looking at it that way, many American & European car companies are building their cars in China/Asia too, so I think the gist of the article is probably still true.. There are of course other ways of looking at this also . . .

I think they are referring to Japanese automakers as a whole, not specifically Honda & Nissan.