World trade
The supply crisis continues to concern Japan’s automakers
Containers stand at the port in Yokohama. The supply crisis continues to cause concern for the Japanese automotive industry. Photo: Koji Sasahara / AP / dpa
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In Japan, too, persistent delivery bottlenecks are depressing the mood of car manufacturers. According to the sentiment index, pessimists are currently the majority in the industry.
The supply crisis for electronic components continues to cause concern for the Japanese automotive industry.
As a quarterly survey (“Tankan”) by the Japanese central bank shows, the sentiment index for the carmaker around industry leader Toyota fell by one point compared to the previous quarter to minus eight between September and December. A negative index means that the pessimists in the industry are in the majority. Across all sectors, the sentiment index for the entire large-scale industry in the country remained at plus 18, after the mood had brightened in the previous five quarters.
Auto industry backbone of Japan
Japan’s automotive industry, which is the backbone of the world’s third largest economy before Germany, had to cut production in recent months due to a lack of supplier parts and semiconductor bottlenecks. In contrast, the mood in the country’s service sector brightened significantly after the corona emergency was lifted in October and is now back at the level before the start of the pandemic, as the Tankan shows.
According to the quarterly survey, the index for non-manufacturing companies rose to plus nine in December after plus two in September. The mood in the management floors of these companies has been improving for six quarters now, although the recovery continues to lag behind that in large-scale industry.