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Toyota expects sales to strengthen

"I think the current domestic output is excessive, because of the falling domestic demand." Fujio Cho, presidentof Toyota Motor PHOTO: AP

Toyota Motor Corp said yesterday it expected sales, production and exports to rise more than previously expected this year because of a budding global economic recovery.

But Japan's leading automaker said it would restructure domestic operations as demand for cars in Japan was falling.

Toyota revised up its group global sales projection for this year by 5 percent or 200,000 vehicles to 6.19 million.

Its production target was boosted to 6.28 million units up eight percent or 280,000 from an earlier forecast. The firm also aims to export 1.85 million vehicles this year, up 7 percent or 270,000 from its original forecast.

The Toyota Group sold 5.93 million vehicles last year, produced 5.85 million and exported 1.75 million.

But sluggish sales at home have prompted Toyota to consider a corporate shake-up at certain production facilities, though concrete plans have not yet been made, said company president Fujio Cho.

"I think the current domestic output is excessive, because of the falling domestic demand," Cho told a news conference.

Toyota's new vehicle sales in Japan fell 6.9 percent from a year earlier in the first half to June, according to the Japan Automobile Dealers' Association.

Toyota aims to increase domestic sales this year by two percent from a year earlier to 1.75 million vehicles.

Despite the positive forecasts, company vice president Ryuji Araki said Toyota had no plans to alter its year to March earnings predictions.
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