Toyota Motor Corp yesterday reported a half-year jump in profits even as car sales declined in most regions, as it moves to cut costs and squeeze more productivity out of its plants worldwide.
The world’s top automaker said its net profit rose nearly 12 percent to ¥1.258 trillion (US$10.34 billion) in the fiscal first half through September, with a weak yen also helping boost the firm’s bottom line.
The automaker’s revenue rose almost 9 percent from the same period last year to ¥14.09 trillion.
Photo: Reuters
However, Toyota sold slightly fewer cars globally at 4.98 million units and trimmed its full fiscal year sales target.
North America stood out as the one key region where demand was strong, after rivals Honda Motor Co and Nissan Motor Co Ltd also cited the giant market as a bright spot that helped offset a sluggish Japanese market.
In addition, the weaker yen has made the two companies relatively more competitive overseas and inflated the value of repatriated overseas profits.
Toyota took a slight lead in the first nine months of the year, as its German rival Volkswagen AG (VW) battles a huge emissions cheating scandal.
“Volkswagen is in a serious situation — Japanese automakers can take advantage of the slump by trying to win VW customers,” Rakuten Securities Inc analyst Yasuo Imanaka said.
A Toyota spokesman yesterday said the company continued to investigate Takata Corp’s airbag inflators and it remained committed to using “higher quality” components.
He did not elaborate.
Shares in crisis-hit autoparts maker Takata yesterday plunged again, losing a quarter of their value.
Takata’s stock price plummeted 25 percent to ¥889 to its lowest close this year after tumbling more than 13 percent on Wednesday.
The rout came after Honda on Wednesday dumped Takata as an airbag parts supplier and US safety regulators on Tuesday slapped it with up to US$200 million in penalties over products that have been linked to at least eight deaths and scores of injuries around the world.
Top client Honda accounts for about 10 percent of Takata’s global sales, which were about US$5.3 billion in the last fiscal year.
“If it was only about paying the fine, that would be the end of it, but after Honda ditched it, the crisis now threatens Takata’s mainstay business,” SBI Securities Ltd analyst Nobuyuki Fujimoto said. “Honda probably decided to drop Takata after finding another airbag supplier. It’s brutal [for Takata] but shares in Daicel Corp are doing well today.”
Daicel, an Osaka-based firm whose products include airbag inflators, yesterday saw its shares jump 7.2 percent to close at ¥1,742.
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