May 11, 2021
Investors should see two scenarios playing out among automakers in Japan this week as the nation’s biggest car manufacturers report their financial results.
On one side is Toyota Motor Corp. which, thanks to its forward supply-chain planning, has weathered the pandemic relatively well. On the other, everyone else, mired in a morass of factory closures due to the global chip shortage.
"There will likely be winners and losers, depending on their inventories,” said Nakanishi Research Institute’s Takaki Nakanishi. Already that bifurcation can be seen in the U.S. between General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co., which sees a $2.5 billion chip-shortage cost, he said. GM meanwhile left its full-year outlook unchanged earlier this month.