A senior Honda executive has reiterated comments made by company president Takeo Fukui earlier this month that the US market may be bottoming out, although risks to recovery still remained.
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Speaking after the company announced its full year results, Koichi Kondo said: “The North American region isn’t quite on a recovery track yet, and the support will come from emerging markets.”
He added: “But we’re seeing a bottoming out of the overall US market.”
He warned, however, that certain factors including the fate of Ford, Chrysler and General Motors, as well as the impact of any outbreak of swine flu, could still derail any recovery.
Honda earlier today posted a fourth quarter operating loss of JPY283bn, down JPY 451.8bn compared to Q4 2008.
Its auto sales were off 35.3% to 680,000 units and revenue fell 41.6% to JPY1,783.8bn due to that and other factors including negative currency effects.
Consolidated net sales and other operating revenue for the full fiscal year ended 31 March, 2009 dipped 16.6% to JPY10,011.2bn. Sales of cars and light trucks fell 10.4% to 3.517m units as sales in Japan and North America fell, offset in part by rises in Asia and ‘other’ markets including Brazil.
Consolidated operating income plunged 80.1% to JPY189.6bn.
