Toyota Motor Corporation today raised its annual profit forecast, closing in on records set before the Lehman crisis as the weaker yen and growing sales in a healthy US market sharply boost earnings.
The world's best-selling carmaker now expects 1.67 trillion yen ($16.95 billion) in net profit for the year ending in March 2014, compared with a previous forecast of 1.48 trillion yen.
That is just short of the record net profit of 1.72 trillion yen Toyota booked in the year ended in March 2008, and compares with an average forecast of 1.79 trillion yen in a ThomsonReuters survey.
Toyota, the most export-reliant among Japan's three big carmakers, has benefited the most from a weakening yen tha tboosts profits both from exports and from converting money made overseas back into yen.
The company also nudged up its North America sales forecast to 2.63 million vehicles from 2.61 million, helping to offset a drop in its Asia sales forecast to 1.64 million from 1.70 million. The global consolidated sales total, excluding China and some other regions, was unchanged at 9.1 million.
Thai sales were especially weak, falling 30% in the three months from July to September as the market slowed down after incentives fo rfirst-car buyers ended last year. Thailand is Toyota's fourth-biggest market on a country basis.
"Our basic stance of controlling fixed costs and improving gross profit will not change, but we do need aggressive investment in order to brush up on future technology," Managing Officer Takuo Sasaki said..
Toyota boosted its annual capital expenditure outlook by 2% to 940 billion yen, or around 4% of its revenue. It kept its R&D expenses forecast for the year at 900 billion yen.
For the third quarter, the world's best-selling carmaker said net profit rose 70% to 438.4 billion yen, in line with the average estimate of 441.01 billion yen.
Its quarterly net profit gain outperformed rivals Nissan, Japan's second-biggest carmaker, and Honda, the third biggest.
Last week, Nissan posted a meagre 2% quarterly net profit growth as US sales growth underperforms its rivals and due to sluggish sales in some emerging markets, while Honda booked a 46.4% rise, boosted by strong US sales.
Toyota sold the most cars among car makers worldwide from January up to September, beating General Motors andVolkswagen.
