By Daniel Hauck
TOKYO, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Four of Japan's top five automakers on Wednesday reported solid increases in global output for August, with strong orders for a line of new vehicles driving third-largest Nissan Motor Co to the head of the pack.
And while data earlier in the day showed auto exports to the United States declined in value in August for the first time in eight months, they rose in volume terms, and analysts said Japan's automakers would continue to boost market share in the world's largest market.
Nissan -- which had held back on the release of new models last year while it concentrated on restructuring -- said on Wednesday its worldwide output rose for the sixth straight month in August, jumping 20.5 percent year-on-year to 213,651 vehicles.
"The story is that Nissan has momentum behind it because of strong demand for its new products," said Chris Redl, analyst at UBS Warburg.
Nissan's domestic production rose 10.5 percent on strong orders for its new Z sports car, the March subcompact and the new Elgrand in Japan, as well as export demand for the Z car and the X-Trail sports utility vehicle.
Overseas production jumped 30.8 percent, with U.S. production soaring 34.5 percent as brisk sales of the new Altima helped Nissan buck the sluggish U.S. economy.
Japan's fourth-largest automaker, Mitsubishi Motors Corp , posted the second-largest rise in global production in August, a 15.9 percent rise to 147,188 vehicles on strong domestic sales of its eK miniwagon and solid U.S. volumes.
Second-ranked Honda Motor Co came in next with a 10.7 percent rise in August global production to 230,030 vehicles, while output for top-ranked Toyota Motor Corp rose 4.0 percent to 413,536 units.
Toyota's growth was a bit lower on a group basis, which includes minivehicle unit Daihatsu Motor Co Ltd and truck unit Hino Motors Ltd , rising 2.1 percent.
Japan's fifth-largest automaker, Mazda Motor Corp, was the only major carmaker to see its global output drop in August, as production dipped 0.2 percent year-on-year to 67,962 vehicles despite the launch of the fully remodelled Demio subcompact.
STRONG YEN
Nissan and Mitsubishi continued to see strong export gains of over twenty percent, while Toyota, Honda, and Mazda saw exports fall after rising in July.
Nissan's exports rose year-on-year for the seventh straight month, jumping 22.2 percent on the back of strong shipments of the Z sports car to the U.S. market and the X-Trail to Europe.
Mazda's exports plunged 16.4 percent year-on-year, while Toyota's dropped 3.1 percent and Honda's dipped 0.9 percent, with Honda's U.S. exports falling 11.1 percent.
The mixed export figures came during a month when the yen rose 4.3 percent year-on-year against the dollar, and data showed on Wednesday that Japanese auto exports to the U.S. market had declined 5.3 percent in value terms year-on-year in August.
But Japanese auto exports to the U.S. market rose 2.2 percent year-on-year in volume terms, while global exports rose 5.8 percent in value terms and 8.2 percent in volume.
Toyota and Honda's falls in exports were countered by solid rises in overseas output, while much of Mazda's drop was due to limiting output of existing models at the end of product cycles.
Analysts said the trade figures did not signal that Japanese automakers -- many of which posted double-digit U.S. sales gains in August in the face of hefty incentives from their U.S. rivals -- were about to see a major slowdown in their assault on the U.S. market.
"Japanese automakers are going to continue to take away share from their U.S. counterparts," said UBS Warburg's Redl.
"Their volumes are growing and their incentives are going down, so you've got price hikes and volume increases -- it's a beautiful profit situation."