Toyota mulls slashing 2013 sales target in Japan by 19pc

Tokyo, Dec. 9 (ANI)

Japanese carmaker Toyota Motor Corp. is considering slashing the annual target for Japanese sales next year to 1.36 million units that would be about 19 percent lower than this year, according to a report.

Sources close to the firm have said that while Toyota is planning to sell 1.67 million units in Japan this year, it is expecting the first annual drop in two years due to the end of government subsidies for buying environmentally safer cars, The Japan Times reports.

According to the paper, while Toyota's domestic target of about 1.36 million exceeds the 1.2 million units of 2011, when sales plunged following the earthquake and tsunami in March, it remains comparable to the 1.37 million units of 2009 when the global auto market shrank during the global financial crisis.

It was also further deepened by the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in September 2008, the paper said.

Sources said that Toyota aims to stick to its plan of producing 3 million units domestically in 2013 to protect jobs and technology at home, with an eye to exporting half of them amid slowing demand in Japan, the paper said.

For the year through March, Toyota is expected to post a group operating profit of 1.05 trillion yen, driven by brisk sales in Southeast Asia and North America, up from an earlier projected 1 trillion yen, the paper added.

--ANI

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Toyota sales improve in China following waning 'island spat' with Japan

Washington, Dec. 4 (ANI)

Japanese automobile firm Toyota Motor Corp. has said that new car sales in China has dropped to a softer 22.1 percent to 63,800 units in November, indicating the fallout from the anti-Japanese protests in China this summer has begun to wane, according to a report.

In October, Toyota's sales sank 44.1 percent from the previous year, while separately, Mazda Motor Corp. reported new car sales in the country fell 29.7 percent in November on year to 12,187, improving from a 45.0 percent fall the previous month, The Japan Times reports.

According to the report, from January to November, Toyota's sales in China slid 3.3 percent from the same period last year to 749,600, making it unlikely the company will achieve its target of selling 1 million cars in China this year.

Sales plunged 48.9 percent in September after the Japanese government purchased some of the Senkaku Islands from a private Japanese owner the same month, sparking extensive demonstrations across China, the report said.

The islets in the East China Sea are administered by Japan but also claimed by China as Diaoyu and Taiwan as Tiayutai, it added.

However, Japanese automakers resumed sales campaigns in China, the world's largest auto market, around mid-October as the hostilities showed signs of subsiding, the report concluded.

--ANI

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