Tokyo 10 Feb 2022 AFP: Toyota today posted a forecast-beating net profit of US$6.8 billion for the three months to December, even as a global chip crunch and a pandemic-driven parts shortage forced production cuts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Japanese auto giant, which kept its crown as the world\u2019s top-selling carmaker in 2021, left its annual net profit outlook unchanged but slightly lowered its full-year vehicle sales and production targets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It posted a \u00a5791.7 billion net profit for October to December, down 5.6% on-year but far better than the \u00a5619.2 billion predicted by Bloomberg analysts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the nine months to December, the firm logged net profit of \u00a52.31 trillion \u2013 a jump of 57.8% from the previous year, when virus lockdowns battered the auto industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Quarterly sales rose by a fifth on-year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDespite negative factors such as constraints on supply due to the shortage of semiconductors and the spread of Covid-19, as well as the sharp rise in raw material costs, we achieved higher sales and profits\u201d in the first nine months of 2021-22, Toyota said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A weaker yen, \u201csupply chain efforts\u201d, marketing initiatives and the appeal of its new products contributed to the profit increase, it added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When Covid-19 first triggered a global drought of semiconductors \u2013 an essential component of modern cars \u2013 Toyota appeared better placed than its rivals to weather the crunch, having strengthened ties with its domestic suppliers after Japan\u2019s 2011 earthquake and tsunami.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But with the crisis showing no signs of ending, the automaker has found itself unable to escape the effects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Toyota cited \u201coperation instability\u201d on a decision to slightly lower its production projection for the year to 8.5 million units from nine million, having already reduced it from 9.3 million in November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCurrently, customers have to wait for a very long time to receive our products,\u201d Toyota acknowledged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018Adept\u2019 procurement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It said its production plans were as \u201crobust\u201d as possible but that the current challenges made it \u201cvery difficult\u201d to predict future performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Satoru Takada, an auto analyst at research and consulting firm TIW, told AFP that Toyota has so far weathered a difficult year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSales have been strong\u201d and the company \u201chas been able to offer attractive vehicles\u201d, he explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIts procurement ability, including from parts makers, remains very adept.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the fourth quarter could prove more difficult, he warned, as production cuts and \u201cuncertain factors\u201d may take their toll on Toyota\u2019s bottom line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Toyota hung on to its title as the world\u2019s top-selling automaker last year when it sold nearly 10.5 million vehicles \u2013 a jump of about 10% from 2020, including units made by its Daihatsu and Hino subsidiaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The firm increased its lead over German rival Volkswagen, which shifted 8.9 million vehicles in 2021, down 4.5% on-year owing to the chip drought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Separately, smaller rival Honda also announced robust earnings and upgraded its annual profit forecast, thanks to cost-cutting efforts, favourable foreign exchange and the lower cost of sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the nine months to December, Honda\u2019s net profit surged 31.1% to \u00a5582.1 billion on sales of \u00a510.68 trillion, up 11.8%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It upgraded its annual net profit forecast to \u00a5670 billion from an earlier projection for \u00a5555 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It lowered its sales forecast to \u00a517.04 trillion from \u00a517.50 trillion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Honda said the pandemic, rising raw material costs and parts shortages, including semiconductors, remain major challenges but pledged to cut costs and incentives to lift its bottomline.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tokyo 10 Feb 2022 AFP: Toyota today posted a forecast-beating net profit of US$6.8 billion for the three months to December, even as a global chip crunch and a pandemic-driven parts shortage forced production cuts. The Japanese auto giant, which kept its crown as the world\u2019s top-selling carmaker in 2021, left its annual net profit …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1638,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,19,2],"tags":[29,436,115,435],"class_list":["post-1639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-auto","category-tie-business","category-tie-world","tag-auto","tag-chip","tag-japan","tag-toyota"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unclekentang.com\/bi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unclekentang.com\/bi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unclekentang.com\/bi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unclekentang.com\/bi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unclekentang.com\/bi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1639"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unclekentang.com\/bi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1640,"href":"https:\/\/unclekentang.com\/bi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1639\/revisions\/1640"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unclekentang.com\/bi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unclekentang.com\/bi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unclekentang.com\/bi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unclekentang.com\/bi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}