Toyota September Sales and Production Slide for a Third Straight Month

Toyota said on October 29 that global vehicle sales and production decreased for a third straight month in September, dragged down by declines in China and the Middle East. Global sales fell 2.2% from a year earlier to 860,107 vehicles, while production dropped 3.2% to 889,079 vehicles. The figures include the luxury Lexus brand, according to Reuters’ reporting of Toyota’s statement.

China remains the problem market. Sales there fell 19.7%, extending the decline to an eighth consecutive month, which Toyota attributed to higher petrol prices weighing on demand for gasoline and hybrid cars. Sales in the Middle East slumped 29.8%. Output fell 18.6% in China and 2.9% in the United States, while rising 5.8% in Japan. The offsets were real but smaller: sales rose 1.8% in Japan and 8.4% in the United States, Toyota’s top market.

Three straight months of declines do not yet amount to a Toyota crisis — the company is still selling at a pace few rivals can match — but the geographic split matters. Growth is now coming from Japan and North America while China, the world’s largest car market, keeps shrinking for Toyota. October sales, due in early November, will show whether the China slide is stabilizing or whether the world’s biggest automaker is settling into a smaller footprint there.