Mazda China's radical expansion unprecedented financial crisis

Although Mazda is facing an unprecedented financial crisis, it will not slow down the pace of expansion in China, but it is the opposite. On February 22nd, Mazda president Masaru Yamanaka said that the company’s operating results for the year 2011 will have a deficit of 100 billion yen. This will also be Mazda’s operating deficit for four consecutive years.

Mazda's crisis is mainly due to its excessive dependence on Japan's domestic production. In recent years, the continued appreciation of the yen has eroded most of the company's profits. The crisis will enable Mazda to accelerate the transfer of production capacity overseas, and China will become a key investment area for the future.

The appreciation of the yen erodes profits On the 22nd of the financial year of the Japanese company, Mazda Motors revealed an explosive news: Mazda will raise capital by up to 162.7 billion yen (about 12.8 billion yuan) due to the company’s financial outlook is not optimistic. ) To consolidate the financial situation. In addition, Mazda will also obtain 70 billion yen in subordinated loans from the main transaction banks Sumitomo Mitsui Banking and Japan Policy Investment Bank, with a total refinancing of approximately 230 billion yen.

Mazda plans to publicly raise capital in China by about 106 billion yen, and about 40 billion yen overseas. In addition, Mazda plans to implement a targeted third-party issuance of approximately 16 billion yen. The total number of issued shares will increase by up to 68% compared with that before the issuance, and the scale will be huge. Mazda shares tumbled 13% after the news broke. Most companies choose to shrink the front when they are in crisis, but Mazda did not do so because its profit decline was mainly affected by the appreciation of the yen. In 2011, Mazda's global sales fell only 2% to 1.25 million. However, compared to other Japanese automakers, Mazda Motors has been relying too much on Japanese production.

At present, the proportion of overseas production of Mazda cars only accounts for 30.2% of the total output, while Honda and Nissan's overseas manufacturing accounts for 75%. The continued appreciation of the yen has eroded most of the company’s profits. To counter the appreciation of the yen, Mazda will have to accelerate the transfer of production overseas. It is reported that Mazda will use the funds to actively invest in the expansion of production capacity and the development of new generation technologies in emerging market countries in order to be invincible in the increasingly severe global competition.

As the world's largest auto market, the Chinese market is clearly one of the key areas for Mazda investment in the future. As early as the fall of 2010, Mazda made a plan for 2015, with a target of producing and selling 1.7 million vehicles worldwide, including 400,000 Chinese sales.

China's expansion has accelerated Mazda's high hopes for the Chinese market. However, due to various factors, its development in China is not very smooth. In the past few years, Mazda can share some opportunities when the market grows, but when the market declines, it is difficult for Mazda to maintain growth.

In 2011, Mazda sold unsatisfactorily in China, accumulatively selling 214,799 units in the year, a year-on-year decrease of 10%. Among them, annual sales of FAW Mazda decreased by 8% year-on-year to a total of 135,455 units. In Changan Ford Mazda, a joint venture with Changan, Mazda sold 79,344 units a year, a year-on-year decrease of 15%.

In spite of this, Mazda China still throws a radical goal of 26% growth this year, reaching 270,000 vehicles. In view of analysts' expectation that the industry's sales volume will increase by 8% to 10% this year, Matouda spokesman Naooto Oikawa admitted that the company's sales target is extremely aggressive.

The fact that the 26% growth target is proposed indicates the pressure that Mazda China's “impulse” faces. It is reported that in order to help increase sales, Mazda will expand its distribution network of 365 Chinese distributors by 15% this year. It also plans to introduce the C X-5 compact SU V.

At the same time, Mazda is also laying out for the future. Mazda prepared two years for the plan to realize a joint venture with Chang’an. This year, the project will be approved. However, Chang’an’s strike of the Changhe Auto Group has made the prospects of this plan unclear. The direction of the joint venture between Changan and Mazda will not change, but approval has been deterred from carrying out its plan. However, Changan Mazda has not given up on the development of the market. According to the plan, Mazda's latest SU V model C X-5 will be imported this year in the domestic market and will be made domestically next year.

For another partner, FAW Group, Mazda did not give up. On February 17, FAW Car announced that the company plans to spend RMB 1.5 billion to build Mazda's product transformation technology transformation project. It is reported that the content of the technical transformation project is to introduce Mazda's latest "Chuangchi Blue Sky" skills and environmental protection power technology, and comprehensively upgrade the existing domestic models. Future large-scale SU V models C X-7 and a new generation of Mazda 6 will be introduced domestically.