Honda Motor Co posted a ¥72 billion (US$774 million) profit for the first quarter in a reversal from red ink a year earlier as booming demand in China and India combined with a fledgling recovery in the US boosted car sales.
Honda, Japan’s No. 2 automaker, reported yesterday that quarterly sales surged 28 percent from a year earlier to ¥2.28 trillion.
Honda, which makes the Insight hybrid and the Odyssey minivan, sold 874,000 vehicles in the fiscal fourth quarter, up 28.5 percent from 680,000 the year before.
Honda’s better fortunes mirror similar recoveries at other Japanese automakers, whose results had been battered the previous year by the financial crisis.
Honda’s sales in Japan recovered, helped by tax breaks for “green” models and brisk demand for smaller models like the Fit, Honda said.
For the fiscal year ended March 31, Honda reported a 96 percent rise in profit to ¥268.4 billion. Sales of ¥8.58 trillion were down 14 percent from the previous year.
Honda is expecting better results for the fiscal year through March 31 next year, forecasting ¥340 billion in profit, up 27 percent from the fiscal year just ended.
Sales are projected to climb 9 percent to ¥9.34 trillion, it said.
Honda’s US sales have been recovering moderately, while the European market was also gradually beginning to recover in the latter half, helped by government incentives, Tokyo-based Honda said.
Mazda Motor Corp and Mitsubishi Motors Corp — Japan’s No. 4 and No. 5 automakers — also posted net profits for the first quarter, reversing losses from a year earlier.
Toyota Motor Corp, the world’s biggest automaker, whose sales have been hurt by a recall crisis, and Nissan Motor Co, allied with Renault SA of France, Japan’s No. 3 automaker, report earnings next month.
NATIONAL SECURITY: The Chinese influencer shared multiple videos on social media in which she claimed Taiwan is a part of China and supported its annexation Freedom of speech does not allow comments by Chinese residents in Taiwan that compromise national security or social stability, the nation’s top officials said yesterday, after the National Immigration Agency (NIA) revoked the residency permit of a Chinese influencer who published videos advocating China annexing Taiwan by force. Taiwan welcomes all foreigners to settle here and make families so long as they “love the land and people of Taiwan,” Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) told lawmakers during a plenary session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. The public power of the government must be asserted when necessary and the Ministry of
CROSSED A LINE: While entertainers working in China have made pro-China statements before, this time it seriously affected the nation’s security and interests, a source said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) late on Saturday night condemned the comments of Taiwanese entertainers who reposted Chinese statements denigrating Taiwan’s sovereignty. The nation’s cross-strait affairs authority issued the statement after several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑), Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜) and Michelle Chen (陳妍希), on Friday and Saturday shared on their respective Sina Weibo (微博) accounts a post by state broadcaster China Central Television. The post showed an image of a map of Taiwan along with the five stars of the Chinese flag, and the message: “Taiwan is never a country. It never was and never will be.” The post followed remarks
Proposed amendments would forbid the use of all personal electronic devices during school hours in high schools and below, starting from the next school year in August, the Ministry of Education said on Monday. The Regulations on the Use of Mobile Devices at Educational Facilities up to High Schools (高級中等以下學校校園行動載具使用原則) state that mobile devices — defined as mobile phones, laptops, tablets, smartwatches or other wearables — should be turned off at school. The changes would stipulate that use of such devices during class is forbidden, and the devices should be handed to a teacher or the school for safekeeping. The amendments also say
CONSISTENT COMMITMENT: The American Institute in Taiwan director said that the US would expand investment and trade relationships to make both nations more prosperous The US would not abandon its commitment to Taiwan, and would make Taiwan safer, stronger and more prosperous, American Institute in Taiwan Director Raymond Greene said. “The US’ commitment to Taiwan has been consistent over many administrations and over many years, and we will not abandon our commitment to Taiwan, including our opposition to any attempt to use force or coercion to change Taiwan’s status,” he said in an exclusive interview with the Liberty Times (the sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) on Friday last week, which was published in the Chinese-language newspaper yesterday. The US would double down on its efforts
RSS