Quarterly gains slide at Toyota
By Yuri Kageyama |
May 12, 2011, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
TOYOTA'S quarterly profit crumpled more than 75 percent after the March earthquake and tsunami wiped out parts suppliers in northeastern Japan, severely disrupting car production.
The maker of the popular Prius hybrid gave no forecast for the current fiscal year through March 2012, citing an uncertain outlook because production continues to be hampered by shortages of parts. Toyota is expected to lose its spot as the world's top-selling auto maker to General Motors Co this year because of the disasters.
Toyota Motor Corp reported yesterday that January-March profit slid to 25.4 billion yen (US$314 million) from 112.2 billion yen a year earlier. For the fiscal year ending in March 2011, Toyota's earnings doubled, showing that the Japanese auto maker had been on the way to recovery from its recall crisis when the magnitude-9.0 earthquake struck on March 11.
But Toyota also said efforts to fix production, including using other plants and finding replacement parts, were going better than initially expected, with car manufacturing expected to gradually pick up in Japan and abroad from next month to 70 percent of pre-disaster levels.
Toyota earlier said such output improvements wouldn't start in Japan until about July, and overseas in August, with a full recovery not expected until late this year.
"Our priority is to get our production back to normal and recover from the disaster," Toyota President Akio Toyoda told reporters in Tokyo.
The hit Toyota has taken makes it likely a resurgent GM will regain the title of world's No. 1 auto maker by annual vehicle sales. Toyota overtook GM as the world's biggest auto maker in 2008, a distinction the American firm had held since 1932.
Toyota said it sold 7.31 million vehicles for the fiscal year through March 2011, up by 71,000 vehicles from the previous year. For the January-March period, Toyota sold 1.79 million vehicles worldwide. That is fewer than the 2.22 million vehicles GM sold and fewer than No. 3 auto maker, Volkswagen AG of Germany, at 1.99 million.
The maker of the popular Prius hybrid gave no forecast for the current fiscal year through March 2012, citing an uncertain outlook because production continues to be hampered by shortages of parts. Toyota is expected to lose its spot as the world's top-selling auto maker to General Motors Co this year because of the disasters.
Toyota Motor Corp reported yesterday that January-March profit slid to 25.4 billion yen (US$314 million) from 112.2 billion yen a year earlier. For the fiscal year ending in March 2011, Toyota's earnings doubled, showing that the Japanese auto maker had been on the way to recovery from its recall crisis when the magnitude-9.0 earthquake struck on March 11.
But Toyota also said efforts to fix production, including using other plants and finding replacement parts, were going better than initially expected, with car manufacturing expected to gradually pick up in Japan and abroad from next month to 70 percent of pre-disaster levels.
Toyota earlier said such output improvements wouldn't start in Japan until about July, and overseas in August, with a full recovery not expected until late this year.
"Our priority is to get our production back to normal and recover from the disaster," Toyota President Akio Toyoda told reporters in Tokyo.
The hit Toyota has taken makes it likely a resurgent GM will regain the title of world's No. 1 auto maker by annual vehicle sales. Toyota overtook GM as the world's biggest auto maker in 2008, a distinction the American firm had held since 1932.
Toyota said it sold 7.31 million vehicles for the fiscal year through March 2011, up by 71,000 vehicles from the previous year. For the January-March period, Toyota sold 1.79 million vehicles worldwide. That is fewer than the 2.22 million vehicles GM sold and fewer than No. 3 auto maker, Volkswagen AG of Germany, at 1.99 million.
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