The Evening Post

Sep 9, 2010

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Toyota on course to overtake GM

By AFP
Agencies
Analysts doubt whether the Detroit giant can significantly boost production in the midst of a painful restructuring drive

NAGOYA (Japan) Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp. is on course to be the world’s top automaker in 2007, overtaking ailing General Motors, according to the latest figures.
Toyota, which has cashed in on strong worldwide demand, especially for its pioneering eco-friendly cars, said production would rise four per cent next year to 9.42 million vehicles.
General Motors expects to produce 9.181 million vehicles this year. While it has not released figures for next year, analysts doubt the Detroit giant can significantly boost production in the midst of a painful restructuring drive.
“It is very likely that Toyota will overtake General Motors next year,” said Tatsuya Mizuno, an auto analyst at Fitch Ratings.
“But it’s only symbolic whether Toyota will overtake General Motors for the place of world’s largest automaker,” he said. “Looking at its profit and cash flow, Toyota is already surpassing General Motors and is by far the world’s number one,” he said.
Toyota, however, has been careful not to gloat about its strong growth for fear of triggering a protectionist backlash in the United States, its vital market where its fuel-saving hybrid vehicles have been a major success.
Asked whether the Japanese automaker will overtake General Motors, Toyota chairman and chief executive officer Hiroshi Okuda said only: “It would be the result of what we do.”
“The growth cannot come without improvement in quality. We need to do a good job. We need to maintain high cost competitivity. We want good and solid product manufacturing,” he told an end-of-the-year press conference.
“Global competition will become increasingly fierce. It is vital that we faithfully hold onto our belief that no growth can come without improving quality,” Okuda said.
He was confident that the mood had changed in the US from the 1980s, when automakers and unions alike campaigned to slap barriers to Japanese competition.