• Most Popular
  • Most Shared

UPDATE 1-Mazda cancels plans to idle Japan plant

Tue May 19, 2009 10:07pm EDT

Stocks

   

* Mazda will not idle any domestic plants in June or July

France  |  Japan

* Shares flat at 223 yen

TOKYO, May 20 (Reuters) - Mazda Motor (7261.T) said on Wednesday it will cancel a plan to idle its main Japan plant for two days next month, as demand has picked up following economic measures from various governments, especially in Germany and France.

The Japanese carmaker said it will not idle any of its domestic plants in June or July, although global sales conditions remain tough.

The improved production outlook at Mazda comes amid some signs of recovery in demand for the car industry.

Nissan Motor Co (7201.T) said on Tuesday orders for its low-emission cars are up 30 percent in Japan so far in May from the same period a year earlier, helped by the government's new tax incentives for low-emission cars. [ID:T240350]

The Fuji Sankei Business i daily also said on Tuesday that Japan's new vehicles sales excluding minicars rose 15 percent in the first half of May from the same period a year earlier.

Shares of Mazda were flat at 223 yen, while Nissan climbed 4.6 percent to 547 yen. The benchmark Nikkei stock average .N225 rose 0.5 percent. (Reporting by Yumiko Nishitani and Nobuhiro Kubo; Editing by Joseph Radford)



More from Reuters

Photo

Personal spending and income rise in November

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Consumer spending rose for a second straight month in November as incomes recorded their biggest gain in six months, data showed on Wednesday, boosting hopes of a self-sustaining economic recovery.

Malaysians participate in computer attack and defence hacking competition during The 3rd Annual Hack-In-The-Box Security Conference 2004 in Kuala Lumpur on October 6, 2004. REUTERS/Bazuki Muhammad
Commentary:

Year of the breach

Data security breaches are nasty business and should be avoided at all costs, writes Kevin Prince, a chief technology officer at Perimeter e-Security. Here's a look at the biggest breaches and blunders of 2009.  Commentary 

 man walks past a stock quotation board displaying the Nikkei share average outside a brokerage in Tokyo June 1, 2009. REUTERS/Toru Hanai

Running out of options

Bad news for safety-oriented investors: the AAA debt market is shrinking, and what's left will leave many with less diversification and lower returns than they're used to, writes columnist Agnes Crane.  Commentary