Toyota raises net profit outlook on yen’s fall, US sales

August 02, 2013 04:42 pm | Updated June 13, 2016 01:19 pm IST - Tokyo

In this file photo made on February 9, 2010, a Toyota emblem is seen on the front of a 2010 Toyota Prius hybrid in the repair shop of a Toyota dealership, in Norwood, Massachusetts.

In this file photo made on February 9, 2010, a Toyota emblem is seen on the front of a 2010 Toyota Prius hybrid in the repair shop of a Toyota dealership, in Norwood, Massachusetts.

Toyota Motor Corp on Friday lifted its annual net profit forecast by 8 per cent to 1.48 trillion yen ($14.9 billion) for the current financial year because of the yen’s depreciation and strong sales in the United States.

Toyota also raised its operating profit outlook to 1.94 trillion yen for the year through March 31, 2014, from an estimate of 1.8 trillion yen three months ago. Sales were predicted at 24 trillion yen, up 2.1 per cent from the prediction in May.

For the April-to-June quarter, Japan’s largest carmaker nearly doubled its net profit to 562.2 billion yen compared to the same period last year.

Toyota logged an operating profit of 663.4 billion yen in the April-to-June quarter, up 88 per cent from 353.1 billion yen a year ago, while sales rose 13.7 per cent to 6.26 trillion yen.

“Our efforts to improve profitability since the Lehman shock have started to bear fruit,” the company’s managing officer Takuo Sasaki told a news conference, referring to the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holding Inc, which helped trigger a global financial crisis in 2008.

The Japanese carmaker will remain cautious about the outlook for emerging economies in Asia amid concerns about an economic slowdown there, Sasaki added.

The yen has declined about 20 per cent against the dollar since the end of November. The depreciation makes Japanese goods more competitive abroad and improves repatriated revenues.

Toyota also said the company and its subsidiaries would produce 10.12 million vehicles worldwide for the financial year, up 2 per cent from 9.94 million vehicles it had estimated three months ago.

Last week, the Toyota group said it sold 4.91 million vehicles in the first half of this year, making it the world’s top-selling carmaker.

The group’s total sales volume edged down 1.2 per cent from a year earlier in the January-to-June period, however, overseas sales rose 2.4 per cent to 3.74 million units partly due to a strong showing in the United States, its largest market.

Shares in Toyota closed up 3.38 per cent Friday ahead of the earnings report, which was released after the markets closed.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.