TOYOTA SAID yesterday that it expected sales to jump by a fifth in 2012 as it rebounded from two natural disasters that disrupted its supply chain and production and halved its profits this year.
The Japanese carmaker said it expected its worldwide sales of Toyota and Lexus premium-brand vehicles to rise 20 per cent to 8.48 million next year, from 7.05 million in 2011.
Toyota said the forecast did not take into account incentives for lower-emission cars recently approved by Japan’s cabinet. The tally includes vehicles made by its Daihatsu and Hino subsidiaries.
Toyota said it expected its global sales to increase a further 6 per cent in 2013 to 8.95 million.
The company, which overtook General Motors as the industry’s largest carmaker in 2008, will lose the title this year after seeing its production hit by Japan’s earthquake and tsunami in March, then flooding in Thailand in October. The earthquake disrupted Toyota’s production and parts supply for months, allowing rival carmakers to steal market share in battleground markets including the US and western Europe. Thailand’s flooding affected three of the Japanese carmaker’s plants in the country. Toyota warned this month that, because of the Thai floods, it would earn an operating profit of 180 billion yen this fiscal year, down from Y408 billion last year and below an earlier forecast of Y390 billion.
Moody’s yesterday downgraded its outlook for Toyota’s credit rating to “negative” from “stable” because of the impact on its profits from the strong yen, worsening macroeconomic conditions in some of its markets and its weaker competitive position because of recent product quality issues.
Since becoming the industry’s largest producer three years ago, Toyota has weathered a series of storms, starting with the collapse of the US car market in 2008/09, then a quality crisis that damaged its reputation and saw it recall more than 12 million vehicles.
The company has since then reorganised its reporting lines and given its regional operations more autonomy.
GM is expected to report the highest production and sales of any carmaker in 2011, followed by Germany’s Volkswagen, with Toyota in third place. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011