Natural Disaster in Japan Dethrone Toyota on Automotive Leadership

The ravages of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan severely affected the industrial market, especially the automotive industry in that country.

Toyota, leading automobile manufacturer since 2008, will lose its number one position which will be take for the General Motors that reappeared after touching bankruptcy in 2009. In March, the Japanese company suffered a fall in output of 62.7% over the same month of 2010 due to supply problems. Despite this, the situation is expected to normalize for November or December this year which not only cause delays, but also losses.

Worldwide, Toyota production fell by 29.9% and its overseas factories still operate at 40%.

Nissan’s production in Japan fell by 52.4%, Honda’s by 62.9%, Mitsubishi’s by 25.7%, and Mazda’s by 53.6%. The Japanese automobile industry in the country produces some of the key elements to prevent the copy of technology. In fact, Toyota only makes the hybrid Prius in Japan thus the U.S. begins to be delays to purchase a vehicle. The company has apologized to customers for the delays.

Source: El Pais.com