Toyota Motor Corp yesterday reported an 8.1 percent drop in fiscal third quarter profit, as a global shortage of computer chips and soaring raw material costs hit Japan’s top automaker.
Toyota’s October-to-December profit last year totaled ￥727.9 billion (US$5.56 billion), down from ￥791.7 billion the previous year.
The maker of the Camry sedan, Prius hybrid and Lexus luxury models said it is doing its best to find other chip suppliers to keep up with demand.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Higher material and energy costs slashed profitability, it said.
Toyota kept its global consolidated vehicles sales forecast for the fiscal year that ends in March unchanged at 10.4 million vehicles. That would be little changed from what it sold in the previous fiscal year, at 10.38 million vehicles.
It expects to sell more Toyota and Lexus vehicles in Japan, but fewer in the US and the rest of Asia, it said.
Quarterly sales rose 25 percent to ￥9.75 trillion.
Although its operating income in Japan received a boost from currency fluctuations, in which the Japanese yen has dropped against other currencies, the same phenomenon hurt its profits in the US and Europe, Toyota said.
The US dollar was trading at about ￥115 a year ago, but is now at nearly ￥130.
Toyota expects to earn ￥2.36 trillion in profit for the full fiscal year, unchanged from its earlier forecast. That is lower than its year-ago annual profit of ￥2.85 trillion.
Akio Toyoda, the grandson of the company founder, plans to step down as CEO while staying on as chairman, a move apparently aimed at freshening its corporate image and highlighting a shift to electric vehicles.
Incoming Toyota CEO Koji Sato is in his 50s, young by Japanese standards for top management at mainstream companies. He has an engineering background and has worked in the Lexus luxury brand division and at Toyota Gazoo Racing Co.
Sato will be steering Toyota’s move to greener vehicles, including electric and hydrogen-powered cars. The personnel changes, which begin on April 1, need shareholders’ approval, scheduled for the next general meeting.
Separately, Nissan Motor Co yesterday maintained its full-year profit forecasts, saying it expects chip shortages and other disruptions to hit sales volumes, but vowed to fight back through “strict financial discipline.”
The Japanese auto giant said it expects net profit of ￥155 billion in the next financial year, and also left its operating income outlook unchanged.
However, the annual unit sales target has been trimmed by 8 percent to 3.4 million vehicles, due to production setbacks caused by “semiconductor supply shortages, and the impact of the spread of COVID-19 infections in China,” Nissan said.
Net profit in the nine-month period to December tumbled 43 percent year-on-year to ￥115 billion, it said.
Additional reporting by AFP
Real estate agent and property developer JSL Construction & Development Co (愛山林) led the average compensation rankings among companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) last year, while contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) finished 14th. JSL Construction paid its employees total average compensation of NT$4.78 million (US$159,701), down 13.5 percent from a year earlier, but still ahead of the most profitable listed tech giants, including TSMC, TWSE data showed. Last year, the average compensation (which includes salary, overtime, bonuses and allowances) paid by TSMC rose 21.6 percent to reach about NT$3.33 million, lifting its ranking by 10 notches
Popular vape brands such as Geek Bar might get more expensive in the US — if you can find them at all. Shipments of vapes from China to the US ground to a near halt last month from a year ago, official data showed, hit by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and a crackdown on unauthorized e-cigarettes in the world’s biggest market for smoking alternatives. That includes Geek Bar, a brand of flavored vapes that is not authorized to sell in the US, but which had been widely available due to porous import controls. One retailer, who asked not to be named, because
SEASONAL WEAKNESS: The combined revenue of the top 10 foundries fell 5.4%, but rush orders and China’s subsidies partially offset slowing demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) further solidified its dominance in the global wafer foundry business in the first quarter of this year, remaining far ahead of its closest rival, Samsung Electronics Co, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. TSMC posted US$25.52 billion in sales in the January-to-March period, down 5 percent from the previous quarter, but its market share rose from 67.1 percent the previous quarter to 67.6 percent, TrendForce said in a report. While smartphone-related wafer shipments declined in the first quarter due to seasonal factors, solid demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) devices and urgent TV-related orders
MINERAL DIPLOMACY: The Chinese commerce ministry said it approved applications for the export of rare earths in a move that could help ease US-China trade tensions Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰) is today to meet a US delegation for talks in the UK, Beijing announced on Saturday amid a fragile truce in the trade dispute between the two powers. He is to visit the UK from yesterday to Friday at the invitation of the British government, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. He and US representatives are to cochair the first meeting of the US-China economic and trade consultation mechanism, it said. US President Donald Trump on Friday announced that a new round of trade talks with China would start in London beginning today,
RSS