Mitsubishi Motors North America says it will keep its factory in Normal, Ill., shut down for five extra weeks as it tries to reduce inventory levels in the sluggish auto market.
The Japanese automaker said Monday it will suspend production for 12 weeks, from Feb. 16 through May 8. Previously, the downtime was to end after seven weeks.
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The financial conflagration which started in the US has spread around the world. Bloomberg tells us that in the UK “despite an easing in prices at the gas pump, sales of new cars in September tumbled, falling 21.2% from the same month a year ago. That was even worse than August, when sales were down 18.6%.” Porsches are apparently the SUV’s twin sister over there with a 33.3% sales plunge. But apparently the UK’s art market is strong: “Stuart McCullough, board member for sales and marketing at Bentley said in an interview last week that some customers were putting off delivery because they didn’t want to make such a lavish and visible purchase when many consumers faced tougher times. ‘We are seeing buyers not taking delivery of our cars, but continuing to invest in the art market’, he said.” You do have to wonder how Sir Stuart knows this. Do his customers invite him into their homes for private showings of their art? Perhaps he will find a still hot selling Smart Car mounted on a pedestal as an object d’ art.
Toyota, long a stalwart of the auto industry seemingly invulnerable to market fluctuations, is suffering just as much as its competitors, a new study finds. The world’s biggest automaker is set to make an official announcement of revised earnings estimates, as well as reduced production capacities in certain plants based on slow sales in the United States and Europe.
According to Nikkei of Japan, Toyota will post an operating profit somewhere around 1.3 trillion yen, or about $12.8 billion. That’s well below the automaker’s current forecast of 1.6 trillion yen, which was lowered earlier this year. A combination of the strong yen and weak sales particularly in North America pushed Toyota’s operating profit down 39 percent in the April-June period, potentially signaling what the rest of the year will look like for the automaker.
Toyota will also likely revise its overall sales estimate for the year. Previously, Toyota had suggested that 9.5 million units would be a realistic target.
