Toyota is reporting that its January-to-March profit more than quadrupled to ¥121 billion (US$1.51 billion) from the previous year, capping off a hardship-filled year battered by the tsunami in Japan.
Toyota Motor Corp’s profit for the fiscal year ended March plunged 30.5 percent to ¥283.56 billion, down from ¥408 billion the previous fiscal year, as last year’s tsunami damaged supply chains in northeastern Japan and hobbled Toyota production around the world.
recovery
However, in a sign of solid recovery, Japan’s No. 1 automaker forecast yesterday its profit soaring to ¥760 billion for the fiscal year through March next year.
The company pledged a sharp rebound in the current fiscal year, expecting net profit to more than double to ¥760 billion on surging demand in emerging markets.
Toyota also forecast operating profit to nearly triple year-on-year to ¥1.0 trillion as consumers opt for small and economically priced vehicles, as well as “green” models, a key segment for the manufacturer.
vision
“Our vision is to establish a strong business foundation that will ensure profitability under any kind of difficult business environment,” Toyota president Akio Toyoda said in a statement.
“Certainly the last fiscal year was extremely challenging due to the natural disasters in Japan and Thailand, plus the unprecedented strength of the yen,” he said.
help
The yen, which hit a record high against the US dollar last year, began to weaken early this year, a decline that will help exporters whose products become more expensive overseas when the currency strengthens.
Toyota, which said it sold 7.35 million vehicles in the year to March for total sales of ¥18.58 trillion, down 2.2 percent, lost its No. 1 spot in the global carmakers’ league last year.
The company is expecting to sell 8.7 million vehicles for the fiscal year through March next year.
Toyota had been the world’s biggest automaker since 2008 and sold 8.42 million vehicles in 2010.
top spot
However, its figure for last year leaves US giant General Motors, with about 9 million in unit sales, back in top spot after it emerged from bankruptcy, with Germany’s Volkswagen in second place, selling more than 8 million vehicles.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure