Toyota Motor Corp posted a stronger-than-expected quarterly operating profit, shrugging off a firm yen and the damaging impact of flooding in Thailand, and raised its annual forecast, helped by cost cuts and Japanese government subsidies, Reuters reported.
Widespread floods in Thailand late last year battered Toyota just as it was recovering from production lost to the earthquake in Japan in March. The floods cost Toyota 240,000 vehicles in lost output worldwide, dragging 2011 global sales down by 6 percent and allowing General Motors Co and Volkswagen AG to overtake it in global vehicle sales.
The yen's prolonged strength is also weighing on Toyota, which last year built 2.76 million cars in Japan, one third of Japan's total vehicle production. It exported 57 percent of that output, much of it at a loss.
Toyota raised its forecast for operating profit – earnings from its core operations – for the year to end-March to 270 billion yen ($3.52 billion) from a previous 200 billion yen. Consensus forecasts from 23 analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S are for 330.8 billion yen.
October-December operating profit jumped 51.1 percent to 149.7 billion yen ($1.95 billion) from a year earlier.
Toyota aims to sell at least 1 million vehicles in China this year, up from 880,000 in calendar 2011, Senior Managing Officer Takahiko Ijichi told a news conference on Tuesday, Feb 7.
