Dominique Numakura's Newsletter from Japan
May 19, 2004
Toyota had over ten billion dollars net profit. The largest Japanese automobile manufacturer Toyota Motors reported more than a10 billion dollar income for the fiscal year of March 2004. A Japanese newspaper indicated the comparison of the major automobile companies in the U.S. and Japan. It could be the world largest profit as a manufacturer. Toyota Nissan GM Ford
Cars sold (million) 6.71 2.94 8.09 6.72
Revenue (billion$) 161.78 69.50 185.53 164.20
Net profit (billion$) 10.87 4.71 3.82 0.49
Profit rates (%) 6.72 6.78 2.06 0.30 A big difference is the profit rate. The Japanese automobile manufacturers have much higher profit rates than Americans. The management of the American automobile companies has been commenting their strange analysis for the results. e.g. strong US dollar, new facilities, smaller burden, etc. They can be some parts of the reasons, but they are not the majors. It is my opinion that the major reason is the corporate level cost down activities. Accordingly, they have high productivity and competing power, even though the employees have the world highest salaries. There are several famous programs such as “Kaizen” and “Kanban System”, which are introduced in the manufacturers in the U.S. Unfortunately, it is my experience that very few people in the U.S. know the real value of the programs and the companies do not have remarkable results by some trials. Many Japanese electronics companies have the similar cost down activities, and it is the strength of the manufacturers. Otherwise, they can not be very competitive with the high labor cost in Japan against the low labor cost countries such as China. Dominique Numakura Headline News Sumitomo Electric (Major cable company in Japan) 5/10
Developed an innovative but practical super conductive cable.
Hitachi Maxcel (Memory material manufacturer) 5/10
Will increase the manufacturing capacity of the DVD-R discs to 20 million per month from 5 million per month this year. Kyocera (Major component manufacturer in Japan) 5/11
Will complete the development of fuel cell system for the home power source by October. 2004. Toho Gas (Gas supplier in Japan) 5/11
Will be ready to produce the solid oxidized type fuel cell by the end of the year. Toyobo (Chemical company in Japan) 5/12
Will increase the manufacturing capacity of poly-amideimide resin for the adhesiveless flexible laminate significantly to cover the booming demands. Nittobo (Major material supplier) 5/12
Will increase the manufacturing capacity of the thin glass cloth for the strong demand of thin glass epoxy circuit boards. SamSung Electronics (Korean major electronics company) 5/11
Released the R&D roadmap of fuel cell products for the mobile electronics. Toray (Major chemical company in Japan) 5/13
Will re-organize the domestic film business to strengthen the film relating business such as adhesiveless laminates for the flexible circuit industry.
Mitsubishi Gas Chemical (Major copper laminate supplier) 5/13
Will invest several billion Yen to increase the manufacturing capacity of BT resin base laminates 200 thousand square meters per month. Runesus (Major semiconductor in Japan) 5/13
Rolled out the 1.31 million pixel C-MOS camera module wired with a fine flex circuits for the booming portable electronics. Mitsubishi Chemical Media (Memory material supplier) 5/14
Commercialized the world first single sided double layer DVD+R disc for the DVD-9 standard. Ibiden (The largest PWB manufacturer in Japan) 5/14
Will double the investment for the manufacturing equipment to 25 billion Yen in 2004.
All original news items were written in Japanese. Volunteers are choosing the topics and translating to English for free delivery. We are not responsible for the accuracy of the news. Quick news is the first priority of the headlines, therefore, we can not eliminate all of the mistakes in the translations.
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