Toyota bests GM output a second year

NEW YORK (Kyodo) General Motors Corp. produced an estimated 8.15 million vehicles worldwide in 2008, down 12 percent from the previous year, GM officials said Monday, making it certain Toyota Motor Corp. will remain the world's largest automaker in output terms.

Late last year, Toyota said its global output would probably come to 9.23 million vehicles, down 3 percent.

Toyota overtook GM in global production for the first time in 2007, when it produced some 200,000 vehicles more. Last year, the difference widened to more than 1 million as GM repeatedly reduced production due to plunging sales in the key U.S. market.

For January-March of this year, GM will likely produce 1.30 million vehicles globally, down 42 percent from the same period last year, the officials said. The sharp drop is anticipated as GM is set to halve its production in North America.

HIROSHIMA (Kyodo) Mazda Motor Corp. President Takashi Yamanouchi has said he and Mazda's other board members will give up 20 percent of their monthly pay starting with last month to help offset slumping sales.

Yamanouchi said the executives have decided to return part of their salaries "to share the pain" that flagging sales have inflicted on the carmaker and its employees. It remains unclear how long they will keep the pay cuts in place.

Mazda will have to revise downward its earnings targets under the midterm business program it drew up in spring 2007 when it releases earnings results for fiscal 2008, he said.

The program called for posting a group operating profit of ¥200 billion or more in the 2010 business year on the basis of projected worldwide sales of 1.6 million automobiles.

"We will have no alternative but to revise the (target) numbers, taking into account the current situation," he said.

Yamanouchi defended Mazda's decision to cut the number of temporary workers at its Ujina factory in Hiroshima and the Hofu plant in Yamaguchi Prefecture, saying, "It was a painful decision we had to make during this difficult business environment."