Toyota Q1 net drops 28% on falling truck sales in US
Toyota Motor, the world’s biggest automaker, posted a smaller-than-expected 28% drop in quarterly net profit.
TOKYO: Toyota Motor, the world���s biggest automaker, posted a smaller-than-expected 28% drop in quarterly net profit, dented by a strong yen and slumping US sales, and kept its forecasts unchanged for what is set to be its most challenging year in recent memory.
���The environment surrounding our business has taken a sharp turn for the worse, leading to a very tough first quarter,��� executive vice-president Mitsuo Kinoshita told a news conference. ���It will be crucial for us to act quickly and flexibly to overcome this.���
While sales in China, Russia and the Middle East are growing faster than anticipated, Toyota and other automakers face a downward sales spiral in North America, Western Europe and Japan, a weaker dollar that drags on earnings, and dearer raw materials.
Toyota���s April-June net profit was 353.7 billion yen ($3.2 billion), down from a record 491.5 billion yen a year ago. Operating profit, which excludes earnings in China, fell 39% to 412.6 billion yen. Revenue fell 4.7% to 6.2 trillion yen.
For the year to the end of March 2009, Toyota kept its forecasts for a net profit of 1.25 trillion yen and operating profit of 1.6 trillion yen, down almost 30% from last year and the first fall since 2002.
Toyota last month cut its 2008 global production and sales forecasts and outlined plans to mothball North American factory lines building light trucks such as the Tundra pick-up, which the car maker had called its most important product ever for the United States when it was launched last year.
���The environment surrounding our business has taken a sharp turn for the worse, leading to a very tough first quarter,��� executive vice-president Mitsuo Kinoshita told a news conference. ���It will be crucial for us to act quickly and flexibly to overcome this.���
While sales in China, Russia and the Middle East are growing faster than anticipated, Toyota and other automakers face a downward sales spiral in North America, Western Europe and Japan, a weaker dollar that drags on earnings, and dearer raw materials.
Toyota���s April-June net profit was 353.7 billion yen ($3.2 billion), down from a record 491.5 billion yen a year ago. Operating profit, which excludes earnings in China, fell 39% to 412.6 billion yen. Revenue fell 4.7% to 6.2 trillion yen.
For the year to the end of March 2009, Toyota kept its forecasts for a net profit of 1.25 trillion yen and operating profit of 1.6 trillion yen, down almost 30% from last year and the first fall since 2002.
Toyota last month cut its 2008 global production and sales forecasts and outlined plans to mothball North American factory lines building light trucks such as the Tundra pick-up, which the car maker had called its most important product ever for the United States when it was launched last year.
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