Toyota ekes out quarterly profit, raises forecast

Toyota Motor Corp eked out a ¥1.1 billion (US$14 million) quarterly profit and raised its annual earnings forecast Tuesday as it mounts a comeback from the devastation of the earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan.

Still, April-June profit for Toyota was a fraction of the yen190.4 billion it earned a year earlier.

Quarterly sales crashed 29 per cent to ¥3.44 trillion (US$44.68 billion) because Toyota made far fewer cars after the March 11 disasters destroyed parts suppliers in the country's industrial northeast.

Toyota cited how auto sales had held up in Asian nations such as Indonesia in raising earnings and sales forecast for the fiscal year through March 2012.

Expected sales

Toyota now expects to sell 7.6 million vehicles worldwide, up from an earlier forecast of 7.24 million vehicles, and better than the 7.3 million it sold the previous fiscal year.

But that's unlikely to be enough to avert losing its crown as the world's biggest automaker by vehicle sales to General Motors Co.

Christopher Richter, analyst at CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets in Tokyo, thinks it would be a remarkable achievement in the face of the disasters if Toyota manages to keep its No. 1 spot.

Toyota staying in the black rather than posting a significant loss was surprising good news, given how bleak things looked even a month ago, he said.

"They bounced back and managed to do better than street expectations," Richter said. "In balance, this is a positive announcement."

The automaker now expects an annual profit of ¥390 billion (US$5.1 billion) compared with its previous forecast of ¥280 billion (US$3.6 billion) profit.

The new forecast is still 4 per cent lower than profit in the previous year.

Toyota raised its annual sales forecast to ¥19 trillion (US$247 billion) from ¥18.6 trillion (US$242 billion). That would mark a slight improvement from the previous year's yen18.99 trillion.

- AP