Toyota Motor Corp operating profit falls 52%

PanARMENIAN.Net - Toyota Motor Corp posted a 52 percent fall in quarterly operating profit on Wednesday, May 11, and gave no annual forecasts, as expected, as it struggles to measure the scope of the disruption to production after the March 11 earthquake.

The world's biggest automaker is facing another tough year as a severe shortage of parts caused by Japan's biggest earthquake on record hammers production just as it was putting its recall woes behind it.

President Akio Toyoda said the automaker should see a pick-up in output from June to 70 percent of prequake plans, earlier than expected on April 22 when it forecast a return to full production by November or December from less than half of planned volumes now. It did not specify how fast it would get there.

On Tuesday Toyota denied a Nikkei newspaper report that normal production would come two to three months earlier than planned.

The massive hit to production will almost certainly mean Toyota will fall behind General Motors Co and possibly Volkswagen AG to rank third in global vehicle sales this year, AP reports.