Bloomberg reports that Toyota and Nissan built more vehicles globally last month to meet rising demand in North America and other overseas markets.

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Worldwide production at Toyota rose for the seventh straight month in May, increasing 14 percent to 579,040 units from a year earlier, the company said in a release today. Nissan’s output rose 17 percent to 277,927 units.


Toyota, Nissan and Honda Motor Co. have been increasing their production outside of Japan to deliver their models sooner and reduce the impact of currency fluctuations on earnings. Toyota, the world’s second-largest automaker, is building a truck factory in Texas and will build its seventh North American vehicle assembly plant in Canada.


“Japanese automakers are increasing local production and local content, which makes them more competitive abroad in terms of cost and speed,” said Norihito Kanai, an analyst at Meiji Dresdner Asset Management Co. in Tokyo, which manages $2.5 billion in equities, including auto shares. “We will see more vehicles made abroad by these automakers as they want to build where they sell,” the analyst told Bloomberg.


The Bloomberg report noted that Toyota’s expansion isn’t limited to major vehicle markets like North America. The company will increase production by about 40 percent next year in so-called emerging markets to meet growing demand for its minivans and pickup trucks, the report said.

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Toyota plans to build 700,000 Innova minivans and other models designed for markets including Argentina, Indonesia, Thailand and South Africa, up from an initial target of more than 500,000, President Katsuaki Watanabe said earlier this week, Bloomberg reported.


Toyota’s overseas production surged 21 percent to 303,356 units in May. Toyota’s domestic production rose 6 percent to 275,684 units. Exports gained 3.5 percent to 151,111 units.