Toyota Posts 30.5% FY Profit Fall

Japan’s Toyota Motors said that full year net profit for the year to March reduced 30.5 per cent to 283.56 billion yen ($3.56 billion), mainly because of the tsunami disaster in Japan and the subsequent flooding in Thailand.

But the automaker forecast a sharp rebound in the current fiscal year, expecting net profit to more than double to 760 billion yen ($9.5 billion) and operating profit to nearly triple year-on-year to 1 trillion yen.

“Certainly the last fiscal year was extremely challenging due to the natural disasters in Japan and Thailand, plus the unprecedented strength of the yen,” company president Akio Toyoda said in a statement.

“Our vision is to establish a strong business foundation that will ensure profitability under any kind of difficult business environment,” he added.

Net income in the last quarter ended March more than quadrupled to 121 billion yen, as Toyota increased production by 36 per cent.

The company said that it was aiming to increase sales to 8.7 million vehicles globally in the current fiscal year.

“We expect a great increase in sales mainly in North America and Asia this year, especially as we plan to roll out new models,” Satoshi Ozawa, Toyota’s executive vice president, told reporters.

“As the markets get active thanks to a recovery from the disaster and the tax-cut incentive for environmentally friendly cars, we expect new models such as Aqua will make good contributions,” he added.