Toyota, Honda boost November output due to demand overseas

Posted Dec 27th 2007 3:56PM by Brian White
Filed under: Products and Services, Industry, Toyota Motor Corp. (TM)

Toyota Motor (NYSE: TM) and Honda Motor (NYSE: HMC) both said that production was increased for growth in overseas markets in November. Toyota built over 803,000 vehicles and Honda produced over 363,000 vehicles in November to satisfy demand in emerging markets and to find equilibrium in global markets based on currency fluctuations.

Nissan Motor also increased production in November -- by 15% -- producing over 335,000 vehicles. With Toyota's new Russian plant and increasing Chinese sales, the Japanese automaker is taking a hard look at growth outside of the slow U.S. market that's expected in the first half of 2008.

But U.S. automaker General Motors (NYSE: GM) is not sitting still either, having set its sights on Russia and China (and India as well) in 2007 as it braces for a slowdown in U.S. sales in 2008. Just like many other industries, emerging markets like India and China are becoming hot markets for auto sales. I'm surprised it took until 2008 for this to become a focus area for global automakers.

Tags: HON, Honda Motor, HondaMotor, inthenews, TM, Toyota Motor, ToyotaMotor