Toyota hits by bad market, expects fall in profit

By DPA
Toyota Motor forecasts its net profit for the current financial year will drop 64.1 per cent from the previous year to 730 billion yen ($6.9 billion) due to the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, it said on Thursday.

Japan’s largest carmaker maintained its operating profit outlook at 500 billion yen and sales are estimated at 24 trillion yen for the year ending March 31, 2021.

In May, Toyota withheld its net earnings forecast due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

For the April to June period, the manufacturer of the Prius hybrid and Lexus luxury vehicles posted a net profit of 158.8 billion yen, down 74.3 per cent from the same period last year.

Toyota also saw operating profit for the quarter plunged 98.1 per cent to 13.9 billion yen, while sales were down 40.4 per cent at 4.6 trillion yen.

The number of vehicles sold worldwide during the quarter plummeted 50 per cent to 1.15 million units, Toyota said.

While Toyota predicts the global automobile market will gradually recover and return to the same level as the previous year during the end of 2020 and the first half of 2021, “the impact of COVID-19 is wide-ranging, significant and serious.

“It is expected that weakness will continue for the time being,’’ the company said in a statement.