Toyota Q3 Profit Falls 47.6 Percent, F'casts Lifted

TOKYO - Toyota Motor Corp reported a 47.6 percent drop in quarterly profits, hit by slumping Japanese car sales and a firm yen, highlighting its damaging exposure to the loss-making export business.

Nissan and Honda are also seen suffering a drop in third-quarter profits due to the stronger yen and falling demand in Japan, but the decline at Toyota is set to be the deepest given its heavier exposure to unprofitable exports from Japan, reported Reuters.

Toyota exported more than half of its Japan-made vehicles last year, making a loss on many of them with the dollar well below the rate of 90 yen that President Akio Toyoda has said is the minimum to keep Japan's manufacturing sector competitive.

For the full year to March 31, the world's biggest automaker lifted its forecast for annual operating profit to 550 billion yen ($6.68 billion) from a cautious 380 billion yen, after profits for the first nine months exceeded that figure.

A survey of 23 analysts by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S forecast annual operating profit of 489 billion yen for Toyota, trailing expected earnings at smaller rivals Nissan Motor Co and Honda Motor Co.

The carmaker also nudged up its global sales forecast to 7.48 million vehicles from 7.41 million, with domestic sales expected to reach 2.02 million vehicles compared with an earlier prediction of 1.99 million. It kept its U.S. forecasts unchanged at 2.09 million units.

Toyota's October-December operating profit was 99.07 billion yen, down from 189.1 billion yen in the same period a year earlier, while net profit fell 38.9 percent to 93.63 billion yen.

Wide-ranging estimates from nine analysts surveyed by Reuters put Toyota's third-quarter operating profit at an average 70.6 billion yen. Profits made in China are not counted on the operating level at Toyota, which reports under U.S. accounting rules.

Toyota, which stayed ahead of General Motors Co as the world's biggest automaker by a thinner margin last year, built 3.28 million vehicles in Japan last year, compared with 992,000 for Honda and 1.13 million for Nissan.

Toyota shares have risen 18 percent in the past three months versus a 13 percent gain in Tokyo's broad TOPIX. Honda gained 22 percent and Nissan rose 13 percent.

Before the results were announced on Tuesday, Toyota ended trading unchanged from the previous day at 3,490 yen, while the TOPIX gained 0.4 percent.