Toyota posts record $23b profit
Japan’s leading carmaker warns on outlook, with its chief saying industry facing ‘profound change’
Japanese car giant Toyota reported a record full-year net profit yesterday thanks to a weaker yen and US tax cuts, but warned about the outlook for the next 12 months.
The company’s president Akio Toyoda said the industry was facing “profound change” and pledged to transform the auto giant into “a mobility company.”
Japan’s leading carmaker said net profit jumped 36.2 per cent to 2.49 trillion yen ($23 billion, Dh83.40 billion) in April-March, but for the current year it expects that to fall 15 per cent to 2.12 trillion yen.
The boost was driven by a weaker yen and cost-cutting measures, but also US tax cuts, which have pushed up profits for other automakers in recent months.
“Toyota quickly recovered ■ thanks to the US tax cuts and a weak yen for the last fiscal year,” Satoru Takada, an analyst at TIW, a Tokyo-based firm, said ahead of yesterday’s earnings report.
Toyota said sales rose 6.5 per cent to a record 29.3 trillion yen despite a 0.1 per cent decline in vehicle sales by unit, and operating profit was up 20.3 per cent. It said it expected the market in developing countries to stay steady, with the market in emerging economies expanding gradually.
But it also warned of “profound transformation” in the industry as a whole because of “increasing, serious environmental issues and other social challenges, [and] technological innovation such as automated driving”.