Moto Companies to Cut Production Due to Economic Crisis

The global economic crisis had serious consequences over the automotive and the motorcycle industries, most customers becoming interested in low-cost cars with lower fuel consumption and less-powerful engines. Today, three of the motorcycle industry giants, Honda, Yamaha and Suzuki, announced that they will cut the production in multiple plants around the world due to the decreasing demand which, in its turn, is caused by the global economic crisis.

According to AAP, Honda already confirmed that the Japanese company will reduce the total motorcycle production by 10 percent in the upcoming year, approximately 400,000 bikes being planned for the next 12 months. Moreover, Yamaha already responded to the economic crisis and reduced the 250cc bike production of the Iwata factory to 350,000 units.

Suzuki took similar decisions and lowered the production to 509,000 units for the upcoming year, a reduction of approximately seven percent, the aforementioned source added. Moreover, the Japanese company already predicted that the total number of motorcycles sold in the United States will be reduced by approximately 100,000 units.

With continuously decreasing sales in North America and Europe, the Japanese companies become more interested in the Asians markets, the same press association mentioned quoting the Nikkei business daily.

“Yamaha also plans to trim production in Italy by the end of the year because of sharply falling sales in Europe. Facing the prospect of a prolonged sales slump in Japan, the United States and Europe, Japanese makers are stepping up efforts to bolster their operations in emerging economies in Asia and South America,” it reported.

According to various sources, Suzuki Motor Corporation had a total revenue of $19.76 billion in 2005, while Yamaha recorded a net income of 149 million dollars. Honda is by far the leader of this chart with a total income of 119.8 billion brought last year.