Subaru-maker Fuji Heavy Industries on Tuesday said it expects its global car sales to climb 14.5% this year on the back of strong minivehicle sales at home and sales of its Legacy model in the United States, according to Reuters.
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The healthy sales growth forecast of 623,000 vehicles comes after a 1.9% fall in calendar 2003, the news agency noted.
“We are going on a sales offensive this year,” Subaru chief executive officer Kyoji Takenaka reportedly told a news conference, adding: “The sales goal is attainable.”
Fuji Heavy, one-fifth owned by General Motors, said it’s after 24% growth in domestic sales to 306,000 this year and expects sales of minivehicles at home to soar 40% to 186,000 units, thanks to robust sales of the Subaru R2 minivehicle model launched in December, Reuters said.
The news agency said the target announcement followed a lacklustre performance last year when Subaru scored a tiny 1.0% growth in global sales and a 5.2% fall in domestic sales.
Reuters noted that Subaru last November unveiled about a 50% fall in group operating profit for April to September, hit by a U.S. price war and weak domestic sales of its Forester sports utility vehicle and Impreza sports sedan, as well as an ageing minivehicle line-up.
Subaru at that time lowered its operating profit outlook, which had already been its lowest in seven years, to 53 billion yen ($US497 million) for the year to March 31 – a fall of 22% compared with the previous year, the report added.
Takenaka reportedly said he expects sales in the key US market to grow 6% to a record high of 203,000 units this year, after the planned June debut in the United States of the redesigned Legacy model line.
The report did not mention increased unit sales and revenue as a result of Subaru’s deal to build a lightly restyled version of its Impreza for Saab.
According to Reuters, Takenaka said Fuji is also considering building a sales network in major Chinese cities, although it has no plans to build a production base.
The dollar’s rapid fall against the yen, however, remains a major concern, the report said.
“Given our high proportion of dollar-denominated sales, it’s already hard for us at the current dollar/yen rate,” Fuji Heavy corporate executive vice president Shunsuke Takagi told Reuters, adding: “A further weakening of the dollar below 100 yen would be a severe blow to us.”
Fuji Heavy reportedly said it would use an assumed dollar/yen rate of around 105 yen for the next business year starting April, compared to 116 yen for the current business year, though this year’s earnings would not be greatly affected by the recent surge of the yen against the dollar.
