TOKYO — Toyota Motor Corp.'s sales surged 45 percent in North America in the latest quarter while operating profit in the region doubled to help the automaker raise its full-year profit outlook.
Regional sales climbed to 598,000 units in the three months ended Sept. 30, the company's fiscal second quarter, up from 413,000 a year earlier, when sales worldwide were hampered by the earthquake in Japan.
Operating profit in North America jumped to 64.9 billion yen ($807.1 million) in the quarter, from 32.5 billion yen the year before. Toyota attributed that partly to increased output. Toyota's global net profit more than tripled to 257.9 billion yen ($3.2 billion).
"In North America, operating income improved as a result of increased vehicle production and sales, despite the decreased contribution from financial services," Executive Vice President Satoshi Ozawa said while announcing the results.
With U.S. demand rebounding and Toyota's supply chain back to normal, Japan's biggest carmaker increased North American production 42 percent to 391,000 vehicles in the quarter.
The healthy results in North America helped offset sliding business in China.
Toyota raised its full-year net profit forecast by 2.6 percent to 780 billion yen ($9.7 billion) even after sales in China, the world's biggest autos market, virtually halved following a popular backlash against Japan because of a territorial dispute.
A year ago, Japanese manufacturers were still struggling from the aftermath of the March earthquake and tsunami. In North America, Toyota's operating income increased by 121.0 billion yen to 182.6 billion yen.
Toyota's U.S. sales rose 16 percent in October from a year ago, giving it, and its Lexus luxury brand, a 13.9 percent market share, up from 12.3 percent a year ago.
Sales at Toyota and its two Chinese joint ventures dropped 49 percent in September from a year earlier and 44 percent in October. Honda's China car sales more than halved last month. But, with about 12 percent of its global sales in China, Toyota has lower exposure there than Nissan and Honda.
Shares in Toyota, valued at nearly $135 billion -- almost as much as Honda, Nissan and Hyundai combined -- are up by a quarter this year, easily outpacing Honda's 4.5 percent gain, while Nissan is flat. The benchmark Nikkei share average is up almost 7 percent for the year to date.
No comments:
Post a Comment