Toyota Motor Corp reported a surprise quarterly profit and cut its annual loss forecast by more than half as sales and cost cutting beat its forecasts, putting it on track to follow Japanese rivals into the black next year.
Toyota, the world's biggest carmaker by sales, wrapped up an earnings season dominated by rosier projections from Japanese automakers as they squeeze out savings and boost manufacturing efficiencies to offset the damaging rise in the yen.
The industry has also gotten a sales boost from government-backed incentives from Germany to China and Japan, aimed at igniting demand through the worst economic crisis in generations.
But with the outlook for demand uncertain at best as such stimulus programmes begin to run out, Toyota is looking to eliminate more spending, announcing its exit from Formula One racing on Wednesday to put its annual budget of around $300 million to better use.
Toyota now expects an operating loss of 350 billion yen for the year to March 31st. It expects a net loss of 200 billion yen instead of a loss of 450 billion yen.
For the July-September quarter, the maker of the Prius hybrid car reported an operating profit of 58.0 billion yen, down 66 percent from a year earlier but beating an average estimate of a loss of 63 billion yen from five analysts.
Its net profit fell 84 percent to 21.84 billion yen, while revenue dropped 24 per cent to 4.54 trillion yen.
Toyota, until two years ago the world's most profitable car maker, had been the only top Japanese carmaker expected to post a loss in the latest quarter, weighed down by severe overcapacity after years of building new factories during its boom years before the financial crisis hit.
Reuters