Toyota nudges full-year net profit forecast up to $9.7 billion

PanARMENIAN.Net - Toyota Motor Corp nudged its full-year net profit forecast up to $9.7 billion, even as it put the cost of recent anti-Japanese protests and a slowing economy in China, the world's biggest autos market, at lost sales of 200,000 cars, Reuters reported.

Sales at Toyota and its two Chinese joint ventures almost halved in September and October amid often violent protests in a dispute over ownership of islets in the East China Sea. Honda Motor's China car sales more than halved last month, while Nissan Motor's fell 41 percent.

Toyota said on Monday, Nov 5, the impact of the drop in sales would cost it 30 billion yen off its full-year net profit. It sold around 900,000 vehicles in China last year.

China accounts for around 12 percent of Toyota's sales, compared to Nissan's 27 percent and Honda's 20 percent. The backlash in China against Japanese goods allowed Hyundai Motor and BMW to pick up market share.

Toyota increased its net profit forecast for the year to end-March to 780 billion yen, up 2.6 percent from its previous guidance. It said full-year operating profit would be 1.05 trillion yen, up a touch from its earlier forecast for 1 trillion yen.

In its biggest market, the United States, Toyota'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. Toyota said it hopes to sell 2 million vehicles in the United States, a market it sees growing to 14 million vehicles.

Toyota on Monday trimmed its forecast for global sales in the year to end-March - excluding those at its Chinese joint ventures - to 8.75 million vehicles from a previous 8.8 million.