4TH LD: Toyota's Jan.-June global sales fall 26%, but remain ahead of GM+

NAGOYA, July 28 Kyodo -
(EDS: ADDING CHINA FIGURES AND COMMENT AT 6TH, 10TH, 12TH-13TH GRAFS)
Toyota Motor Corp. said Tuesday its group's global vehicle sales for the
January to June period fell 26 percent from the previous year to around
3,564,000 units as auto demand fell heavily in its key markets due to the
worldwide economic recession.

But it remained the world's largest automaker, narrowly surpassing U.S.
automaker General Motors Corp.'s sales figure, which stood at around 3,552,700
units during the same period.
It is the first time for the Toyota group, which includes Daihatsu Motor Co.
and Hino Motors Ltd., to incur a year-on-year decline in the six-month period
since it began releasing group sales figures in 1999.
Experts say the decline for Toyota, Japan's largest manufacturer, may delay the
pace of economic recovery and have an adverse impact on the entire business
industry.
For the first half of this year, Toyota's group sales fell 37.9 percent to
around 771,000 units in the United States, 26.4 percent to around 454,000 units
in Europe, and 22.3 percent to 914,934 units in Japan.
On the other hand, auto sales have been relatively stable in some emerging
markets like China, where the Toyota group sold 284,000 units, down 0.3
percent.
Meanwhile, the domestic car sales of Toyota alone for the six-month period
dropped 26.6 percent from a year earlier to 593,173 units.
But the decline in domestic sales is showing signs of easing, with Toyota's
June sales coming to 112,591 units, down 11.4 percent from the previous year,
compared with an over 20 percent decline in May.
While the impact was limited during the six-month period, Toyota has seen
booming sales for its new Prius hybrid released in mid-May on the back of
recent government tax breaks and subsidies for fuel-efficient cars.
''We hope the markets pick up,'' a Toyota official said.
Toyota said its domestic market share excluding minicars came to 45.5 percent,
down 0.1 percentage point during the January-June period.
Its domestic output slid 49.0 percent to 1,101,021 units, while its worldwide
production fell 43.1 percent to 2,539,673 units during the first six months of
this year.
Toyota has seen sales expand in recent years on the back of strong growth in
the U.S. market, but is now facing an excess production capacity due to
shrinking demand.
Its newly appointed president, Akio Toyoda, plans to bring the company back to
profitability by strengthening sales in high-growth markets like China while
withdrawing from some areas deemed less competitive. As part of that effort,
Toyota is set to liquidate a joint car manufacturing plant with GM in
California.
==Kyodo