TOKYO (AP) — Sales of Toyota and Honda vehicles nosedived
in China during September as anti-Japanese sentiment flared over a
territorial dispute that threatens to hobble what was a booming business
relationship between Japan and its biggest export market.
Toyota
Motor Corp. said Tuesday that sales of new vehicles in China dropped
48.9 percent in September from a year earlier to 44,100 vehicles. Honda
Motor Co. said September sales plunged 40.5 percent to 33,931 vehicles.
China sales for Nissan Motor Co. slid 35.3 percent last month to 76,100
vehicles.
The stunning plunge in sales comes after Japan last
month nationalized tiny islands in the East China Sea, called Senkaku in
Japan and Diaoyu in China, which had already been controlled by Tokyo
but also claimed by Beijing.
The move set off violent protests in
China, and a widespread call to boycott Japanese goods. Toyota and Honda
dealerships were burned down in one city, and crowds shouting
anti-Japanese slogans have gathered and smashed Japanese cars.
Although
the flare-ups have calmed in recent weeks, it would still require
courage to be seen in a Japanese car in some Chinese cities.
Japanese
automakers temporarily closed some of their China factories. Production
is back up this week — but reduced to lower levels as demand has
collapsed.
Last week, Mitsubishi Motors Corp. reported that China
sales dived 63 percent to 2,340 vehicles in September. Mazda Motor Corp.
said its sales in China sank 36 percent to 13,258 vehicles for the
month.
A study by J.P. Morgan, released Tuesday, projected
Japanese auto exports to China to crash 70 percent during the
October-December period. It said that the export of auto parts will slip
by 40 percent — about the same drop estimated for exports of other
consumer products such as electronics.
Combined, the aftermath of
the territorial spat with China will shave 0.8 percentage point off
Japan gross domestic product growth for the fourth quarter, sending
Japan’s overall economy slightly downward, instead of the initial
forecast for flat growth, according to J.P. Morgan.
China, with
its growing middle class, had been one of the emerging markets that
Japanese automakers were counting on to boost sales amid a long
stagnation in the domestic auto market.
Toyota, Japan’s No. 1 auto
company, which makes the Prius hybrid, Camry sedan and Lexus luxury
models, had planned to sell 1 million vehicles in China this calendar
year.
"But that may be very difficult to achieve," company spokesman Dion Corbett said.
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Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.