Honda Motor Co, suffering from a 38 percent plunge in US auto sales last month, may ask to borrow money from Japan’s government to lend to US car buyers.
The amount of the loans and timing of the request to the state-owned Japan Bank for International Cooperation have not yet been determined, spokeswoman Akemi Ando said by phone yesterday.
Mazda Motor Corp is also considering a request for government loans, spokesman Toyota Tanaka said yesterday.
Honda and Mazda would follow Toyota Motor Corp, Japan’s biggest carmaker, in seeking loans from the government as the global recession hammers auto demand. Toyota’s financial unit may ask for ¥200 billion (US$2 billion) in loans, public broadcaster NHK reported on Tuesday, without citing anyone.
“Things look pretty grim at present,” said Edwin Merner, president of Atlantis Investment Research Corp in Tokyo, which manages US$3.1 billion. “By the end of the year, the year-on-year figures should start improving unless the world economy gets much worse.”
Honda may request at least ¥10 billion from the government, the Nikkei newspaper said yesterday, without citing sources.
Mazda, the Japanese carmaker partially owned by Ford Motor Co, increasingly needs the funds, mainly in the US and Europe, Tanaka said in a phone interview.
No details have been decided regarding a request for government funding, he said.
Japan will use some of its foreign-exchange reserves to lend to the state-owned bank that gives financing to Japanese companies operating abroad, Japanese Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano said on Tuesday.
The ministry may lend about US$5 billion to the bank this month, he said.
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