Japanese auto production was still on a downhill slope in January, as 13.5 percent fewer vehicles rolled off assembly lines compared with the year-ago period, an auto industry association said this week.
Altogether 776,858 vehicles were produced, the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association reported.The decline marked the 16th straight month of decreases, JAMA said, adding that January's slow output was the fifth consecutive month of double-digit declines.
Production of passenger cars slipped to 591,391 vehicles, down 12.2 percent for the 10th straight month of decline from a year earlier, the association reported.
Truck production plummeted 17.8 percent to 177,916 units, posting the 30th year-on-year consecutive month of decrease. Output of buses fell 6.7 percent to 3,551.
Despite the gloomy business environment, Mazda Motor Corp. President Yoshihiro Wada earlier saw a thin silver lining for the exhausted industry.