Mazda announced on Thursday that sales in China stumbled to its lowest number in over a year and a half thanks in part to anti-Japan protests.
Mazda told reporters in a press conference that deliveries in China slipped 35 percent in September. In total, the company only sold 13,258 vehicles, which means they didn't even sell the same amount of cars that they did during the tsunami and flood problems the nation delt with, which halted production temporarily.
Mazda's sales in China have been dropping the past few months because of increased market competition. It's unclear how much the protests contributed to the drop in September deliveries exactly, but it is obvious that they have made quite an impression on the company already.
Mitsubishi meanwhile said that sales plummeted 63 percent for the month of September. Mitsubishi's sales in China declined to a staggering 2,315 vehicles. This is the lowest total since 2011, when the company changed the way it counts China deliveries.
Experts believe if these numbers become a trend other organizations like Toyota Motors will be the next see sales numbers decrease. They have yet to release how they did in China the past month, and will not do so until Tuesday at the earliest.Some think that the announcement has been delayed because their numbers came in much lower than anticipated.
Although the sales numbers are disappointing, they can't be viewed as much of a surprise. Since Japan and China have been at odds over the sovereignty of a group of tiny islands in the East China Sea, things have taken a turn for the worse for the two companies as far as sales go.
Thanks to the dispute, anti-Japan protests took place in China last month causing many automakers to stop production in their auto operation plants in China.
The overall outcome of this work stoppage caused Japanese automakers to lose approximately $250 million.
Reports show that Chinese consumers are avoiding Japanese cars in response to the territorial conflict, which has only made problems worse for the country and both companies.
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