Japanese cars lose Chinese tourists because of island disputes
Japanese car makers are slowly gaining confidence in the Chinese market by identifying ambitious growth targets this year after a long period of influence over the island.
In August, the dispute over the islands of China and Japan continued to evolve. Throughout China, many anti-Japanese protests took place, causing sales of Japanese car brands to plummet.
However, business data in December showed that Japanese car sales in China recovered faster than forecast. Some manufacturers are optimistic that the worst is behind.
Toyota Motor Corporation, Japan's top carmaker, said yesterday it sold 840,000 vehicles in China last year, down 4.9 percent from 2011. December dropped 16% year-on-year to 90,400 vehicles after falling 22% in November, 44% in October and nearly 50% in September.
Toyota has set a sales target of more than 900,000 vehicles in 2013, up 7 percent from the previous year and 2 percent higher than the global market.
"Sales have been gradually improving, but it's still hard to say when the newcomers will reach the same level of growth as they did before last year's rally," said Toyota spokeswoman Niu Yu. "
Previously, Toyota expects sales growth in China to reach more than 10% (1 million units) by 2012 after a 4% increase in 2011 due to the earthquake and tsunami disaster in Japan and floods in Japan. Thailand disrupts the supply chain in the region.