Automotive juggernaut Toyota, following a seemingly unstoppable push towards being the world's number 1 automaker in the last 10 years, and with the overwhelmingly positive response of it's dominating Prius Hybrid car were also unable to escape the recent auto market slump that's happening across most developed markets.
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Toyota's Q1 operating profit of $3.8 billion USD was down from $6.17 billion over same period prior year, a staggering drop of 39%; which was largely due to the huge downturn of the US market, the slumping of the US currency and the petrol price hike affecting virtually every country.
However Toyota's financial year ended March 2009 forecast profits of $11.4 billion USD remains unchanged, executives remained positive towards achieving this goal.
The stock market however doesn't seem to agree with Toyota, as the world's most valuable automaker currently worth a staggering $143 billion USD, is down by roughly 25% since beginning of 2008.
Reports quoted from Automotive News:
A challenging situation' in North America
"The challenging situation in the North American market is likely to continue for the remainder of this year," Kinoshita said.
"Under such circumstances, we need to take action flexibly and promptly in order to improve profitability as we position the North American market as a growth market from a long-term viewpoint," he said.
Total vehicle sales decreased, despite strong sales in Russia and Eastern Europe, due to a slowdown in Western European markets, the carmaker said.
Toyota said it will launch new models in Europe that will continue to meet regional standards of CO2 regulations later this year and into next year to boost sales and generate profit.
For the quarter ended June, Toyota's consolidated global sales rose to
2.186 million vehicles from 2.162 million, led by brisk sales in Asia and the Middle East.
The Toyota group includes mini-vehicle maker Daihatsu and truck manufacturer Hino Motors.
For the full year to March 2009, the company has forecast a net profit of 1.25 trillion yen ($11.4 billion), an operating profit of 1.60 trillion yen and revenue of 25.0 trillion yen ($228 billion), in line with guidance in May.
"Toyota kept its guidance unchanged by factoring in a weaker-than-expected yen and thereby masking the impact of a deteriorating sales outlook," UBS Securities analyst Tatsuo Yoshida said. "Excluding the forex factor, Honda is in a better state than Toyota."
Toyota hopes to offset any extra costs for raw materials by cutting costs.
The automaker now forecasts full year global sales of 8.74 million vehicles, down from the previous forecast for 9.06 million units.
By region, it aims to sell 2.63 million vehicles in the U.S., down from the earlier projection of 2.77 million vehicles, while planning to sell 2.17 million vehicles in Japan, down from the earlier forecast of 2.2 million units.
Toyota plans European sales of 1.29 million, down from 1.39 million seen previously, and sales of 1.06 million in Asia, down from the earlier forecast of 1.10 million units.
It also expects sales of 1.59 million in 'other' regions, including the Central America and the Middle East, down from an earlier projection of 1.60 million units."
