Honda Motor Co yesterday said its fiscal third-quarter profit more than doubled to ￥284 billion (US$2.7 billion), despite the COVID-19 pandemic, as auto sales grew in Japan and the US.
The Japanese automaker had reported a ￥116 billion profit for the October-to-December period a year earlier.
The company’s quarterly sales inched up less than 1 percent to ￥3.7 trillion.
Photo: AP
Cost cuts also helped boost Honda’s bottom line, despite difficulties caused by the pandemic, including chip shortages, the Tokyo-based company said.
The maker of the Accord sedan, CR-V crossover and Asimo robot said it carried out a major review of its operations to streamline expenses.
Honda said its motorcycle sales slipped in the three months through December last year to about 3 million motorcycles from 3.1 million units a year earlier.
Auto sales held up, increasing slightly to 809,000 vehicles from 808,000, it said.
Honda raised its profit forecast for the year through next month to ￥465 billion, up from the previous projection for a ￥390 billion profit.
The latest forecast is also better than the ￥456 billion profit Honda earned the previous fiscal year.
However, Honda said the outlook remains uncertain, because the effects from COVID-19 was still unclear.
Crisis-hit Nissan Motor Co yesterday upgraded its full-year forecast for the second straight quarter as the global auto industry showed signs of recovery from the pandemic.
Nissan, which last quarter upgraded its annual forecasts, said it was further upgrading its outlook, projecting a net loss of ￥530 billion for the fiscal year to next month, smaller than its earlier estimate of a ￥615 billion net loss.
Toyota Motor Corp is to report its earnings today.
Additional reporting by AFP
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