Toyota has posted quarterly operating profit – for the quarter ended 31 December 2017 – up 53.6% on last year to 673.6 billion yen. It also posted operating margin at 8.9% compared with 6.2% last year as profit was lifted by favourable exchange rate effects and cost cutting efforts.
Net income in the October-December quarter was up by 93.6% to 941.8 billion yen.
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Toyota now expects operating profit to increase 10% on the year to 2.2 trillion yen, from 1.99 trillion yen a year earlier and marking an upgrade from its previous forecast of 2.0 trillion yen.
It expects net profit to come in at 2.4 trillion yen, up from a previous forecast for 1.95 trillion yen and on track for a record high.
Toyota was also boosted by strong sales in Japan which helped to offset lower sales in the US.
Toyota sold 2.63m vehicles globally in October-December, up from 2.28m in the same period of the previous year. Vehicle sales in Japan rose 3%, while sales North America fell to 735,000 from 745,000 units. Sales in Europe rose 1.7%.
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By GlobalDataOperating profit in North America was hit by heavy discounting in the declining market.
First nine months results strong
In the first nine months of the year (to Dec 31), operating income increased by 214.7 billion yen. Major factors affecting to the increase included currency fluctuations of 295 billion yen and an increase in cost reduction efforts of 135 billion yen.
In Japan, vehicle sales in the nine-month period totalled 1,639,540 units, an increase of 26,811 units, while operating income, excluding the impact of valuation gains/losses from interest rate swaps, increased by 415.9 billion yen to 1.1128 trillion yen.
In North America, vehicle sales totalled 2,131,194 units, a decrease of 13,822 units, while operating income, excluding the impact of valuation gains/losses from interest rate swaps, decreased by 229.9 billion yen to 168.1 billion yen.
In Europe, vehicle sales totalled 705,892 units, an increase of 38,514 units. Operating income, excluding the impact of valuation gains/losses from interest rate swaps, increased by 6.9 billion yen to 62.5 billion yen.
In Asia, vehicle sales totaled 1,148,177 units, a decrease of 44,634 units, while operating income, excluding the impact of valuation gains/losses from interest rate swaps, decreased by 2.9 billion yen to 335 billion yen.
In other regions (including Central and South America, Oceania, Africa, and the Middle East), vehicle sales totalled 1,053,476 units, an increase of 28,024 units.
For the fiscal year ending March 31, 2018, TMC has not revised its consolidated vehicle sales forecast from 8.95 million units.
TMC Senior Managing Officer Masayoshi Shirayanagi said: “The latest operating income forecast is up 200 billion yen from the previous forecast at the second quarter reporting. Excluding the overall impact of foreign exchange rates and swap valuation gains and losses, it is now up 130 billion yen.
“This reflects additional contribution anticipated from profit improvement activities such as cost reduction, marketing efforts, and reduction of expenses.”
