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Toyota Canada ekes out October sales gain
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The Canadian Press & Associated Press-
Toyota Canada managed to increase sales in October, for the first time in the five months after Japan's devastating earthquake and tsunami led to cuts in production and inventories.
The Japanese automaker reported Tuesday that sales of its cars and light trucks in Canada rose 0.7 per cent compared with the same month a year earlier.
That followed a 5.2 per cent decline in September.
But at Honda Canada, sales fell 13 per cent year-over-year.
That was an improvement over the 22 per cent drop Honda saw in September, but came as it copes with more recent supply issues caused by flooding in Thailand.
On Monday, Honda announced production from its six North American factories will be cut to 50 per cent of the original plan for about a week.
Given that Toyota has about nine per cent of the Canadian market share, and Honda takes about six, their woes are also taking a toll on overall auto sales in Canada.
"The disruption in Japan was fairly significant, and we were starting to come out of it — we were starting to see global vehicle production rebound strongly," said auto analyst Carlos Gomes at Scotiabank.
"This is something that too, will pass, but unfortunately it just adds another complication into that recovery."
Chrysler Canada’s sales rise 12.4%
"While we had just returned to full production in October after a six-month disruption caused by a parts shortage from the March earthquake in Japan, we are now faced with another parts shortage resulting from the devastating floods in Thailand," said executive vice president Jerry Chenkin.
In Canada, Honda has an engine plant and two assembly plants that employ about 4,600 people in Alliston, Ontario.
Toyota Canada said it is also scaling back production due to the floods. It has suspended overtime at its North American plants to conserve parts.
Overall, pent-up demand was expected to help drive October sales as many buyers were waiting for Japanese car inventories to improve after the March earthquake and tsunami in Japan cut supplies.
Chrysler Canada’s sales reached 17,049, a gain of 12.4 per cent from the same period a year earlier and its best October sales since 2002. Its passenger car sales more than doubled during the month to 2,348 units from 890 a year earlier.
General Motors' sales rose 9.1 per cent, finally bringing their sales for the year into the positive, up 0.1 per cent.
Ford remained the best-selling automaker in Canada for this year, with sales up 3.6 per cent from the first 10 months of 2010.
DesRosiers Automotive Consultants said Chrysler, "by a very wide margin, is the best performing Detroit-based vehicle company selling in Canada."
It said Chrysler’s market share so far this year is up by 1.6 points, while Ford's is up by 0.4 points and GM is down by 0.2 points.
Overall in Canada, sales rose by just 2.1 per cent over October 2010, according to DesRosiers. So far this year, it said, sales total 1,349,828, an increase of 1.5 per cent over the same period last year.
U.S. sales expected to pass 1 million
In the U.S., car buyers were out in force in October, and were expected to push sales above one million, a surprising number for a month when sales are usually slow.
Pent-up demand drove sales, with inventories of Japanese cars finally reaching normal levels.
Deals on those cars also inspired some buyers. Auto information site TrueCar.com said Honda Motor Co. raised its incentives by 18 per cent to an average of $2,380 per vehicle, while Nissan Motor Co.'s incentives were up 15 per cent to $2,917.
But Detroit automakers didn't follow suit, with deals that were only slightly higher than last October.
Trucks and SUVs were the big winners for Detroit automakers.
Ford Motor Co. said sales of its Explorer SUV more than tripled from a year ago, while F-Series truck sales were up seven per cent. Ford's overall sales were up six per cent from a year ago, even though its car sales fell eight per cent.
Chrysler reported sales jumped 27 per cent in the U.S. in October, while General Motors reported a slimmer 2 per cent increase on increased demand for both cars and trucks.
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