Toyota’s profit run stops

Toyota Motor Corporation has suffered its first quarterly profit drop in two years and revised its production target for the financial year down one per cent to 10.85 million units, or 240,000 fewer than the previous year.

Weaker sales and production issues in Japan and the US were among the main factors that hurt its financial performance for the September quarter and ended a run of increasing profits.

Sales momentum for the company slowed amid growing competition from Chinese brands, suspending production of two models in the US, and quality issues at its truck and bus unit, Hino Motors, reports Reuters.

Toyota’s operating profit for the September quarter was ¥1.16 trillion (NZ$13 billion), down 20 per cent from ¥1.44tn during the same period a year ago.

Nevertheless, the company maintained its profit forecast for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2025, at ¥4.3tn.

Its report for the three months shows hybrids accounted for more than two-fifths of global sales for the Toyota and Lexus brands, compared with one-third in the same spell last year.

Meanwhile, Honda Motor posted an operating profit of ¥257.9b for the September quarter, down 15 per cent from a year earlier.

It was the company’s first year-on-year decline in seven quarters but it maintained its full-year operating profit forecast of ¥1.42tn.  

Honda says sales for the quarter were lower than a year ago mainly because of pressures in China offsetting improved figures in the US and Japan, reports Reuters.