Mazda has boosted net income 7% to JPY45bn in the first nine months of its fiscal year on consolidated sales revenue up 9% to JPY2,506.3bn.
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Consolidated operating profit rose just 1% to 108.4bn yen and the automaker’s full-year forecast remains unchanged.
Mazda said the operating result came mainly from cost cutting initiatives and the effects of a weak yen offsetting the costs of increased investment in research and development and deteriorating external conditions, such as higher fixed costs and raw material prices as well as inventory adjustments.
Global retail volume for the first nine months of FY2007 improved 11% to 975,000 units excluding the impact of discontinued vehicle production in Hainan, China.
Amid the 7% decline in industry demand in Japan, Mazda’s retail sales were down 4% to 175,000 units.
Retail sales rose 9% in North America to 302,000 and were up 3% to 228,000 units in Europe. Sales were particularly strong in Russia, up 56%.
In China, sales reached 71,000 units. Excluding the impact of terminating production in Hainan, retail volumes rose 97% year-on-year. In other markets, retail volumes grew 22% to 199,000 units.
Senior managing executive officer and CFO David Friedman said: “Mazda is making steady progress toward achieving a seventh consecutive year of increased profits despite a more challenging external environment, including intensified sales competition.”
The automaker still says it will achieve its full-year financial targets for FY2007 even though changes in business sentiment stemming from the US subprime loan issue and other potentially negative factors could have an uncertain effect on global sales.
