TOKYO (Business News) - Toyota Motor Corp reported a stronger-than-expected quarterly operating profit, shrugging off a firm yen and the damaging impact of flooding in Thailand, and raised its annual forecast, helped by cost cuts and Japanese government subsidies.
Widespread floods in Thailand late last year battered Toyota just as it was recovering from production lost to the earthquake in Japan in March. The floods cost Toyota 240,000 vehicles in lost output worldwide, dragging 2011 global sales down by 6 percent and allowing General Motors Co and Volkswagen AG to overtake it in global vehicle sales.
The yen's prolonged strength is also weighing on Toyota, which last year built 2.76 million cars in Japan, one third of Japan's total vehicle production. It exported 57 percent of that output, much of it at a loss.
Toyota raised its forecast for operating profit -- earnings from its core operations -- for the year to end-March to 270 billion yen ($ 3.52 billion) from a previous 200 billion yen. Consensus forecasts from 23 analysts surveyed by Thomson Business News I/B/E/S are for 330.8 billion yen.
The company, which has a market value of $ 135 billion -- more than rivals Honda Motor Co Ltd, Nissan Motor Co Ltd and Suzuki Motor Corp combined -- now sees annual net profit, which includes earnings made in China, of 200 billion yen, up from the 180 billion yen it projected in early December, before Tokyo announced fresh consumer incentives to buy fuel-efficient cars.
Toyota should benefit significantly from the re-instatement of cash-for-clunkers subsidies and the extension of tax incentives on fuel-efficient cars, especially on hybrids and other cars that use new technologies. Its newest Aqua hybrid received orders equivalent to 10 times the sales target in its first month.
Toyota has forecast a 21 percent jump in sales this calendar year to a record 9.58 million vehicles, including subsidiaries Daihatsu Motor Co and Hino Motors Ltd. All its production plants, bar Thailand, are back in action.
"It's premature to talk about any (sales) trends by looking only at our performance from last year when we had all those natural disasters," Toyota President Akio Toyoda told reporters last week. "I would want Toyota to be measured on how we do this year, provided it's a peaceful one."
YEN WEIGHS
October-December operating profit jumped 51.1 percent to 149.7 billion yen ($ 1.95 billion) from a year earlier, well ahead of the average estimate of a small decline to 93.9 billion yen in a poll of nine analysts by Business News.
Quarterly net profit slipped 13.5 percent to 80.9 billion yen.
Last week, Honda said its profits fell sharply, hit in part by a 6 yen fall in the dollar for the quarter. Nissan, Japan's No.2 automaker, reports on Wednesday.
With the dollar trading at 76-77 yen, Toyota's Achilles' heel remains its heavy exposure to Japan. It is scrambling to make its domestic factories more efficient to keep its promise of building at least 3 million vehicles a year at home.
A plan to return its Japan-based parent operations to break-even assumes a dollar rate of 85 yen.
Toyota shares have risen 28 percent since late-November and on Monday touched a 6-month high. Tokyo's main Topix index is up 10 percent over the same period, while Nissan has gained 16 percent and Honda 29 percent.
Ahead of the results on Tuesday, Toyota shares closed flat at 2,986 yen, and the Topix gained 0.4 percent.
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