Toyota 1H Operating Income Drops by Half; Full-year Forecast Slashed

Toyota Motor Corp announced its consolidated financial results for the first half (April to September) of fiscal 2008.

Sales declined 6.3% year-on-year (YoY) to ¥12.1904 trillion (approx US$125 billion), operating income dropped 54.2% YoY to ¥582 billion and net income fell 47.6% YoY to ¥493.4 billion. The company saw both sales and income decrease.
Global sales inched down 1.2% (51,000 units) YoY to 4.25 million units. By region, sales grew in Central and South America, Oceania and other regions by 77,000 units YoY, by 58,000 units in Asia, and by 10,000 units in Japan. Normally strong sales in North America and Europe, on the other hand, decreased by 140,000 and 56,000 units, respectively.

For, Toyota expects sales to fall 12.5% YoY to ¥23 trillion, operating income to plunge 73.6% the full fiscal 2008 year YoY to ¥600 billion and net income to sharply decline 68% YoY to ¥550 billion.

Annual unit sales are anticipated to decrease 673,000 units to 8.24 million units. The company predicts sales in Asia and the other regions including Central and South America as well as Oceania to rise by 34,000 and 13,000 units, respectively, while forecasting sales declines of 538,000, 108,000 and 74,000 units in North America, Japan and Europe, respectively.

"Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy, the yen's appreciation to less than ¥100 to the US dollar and the record low stock price all took place in succession in the short period after our previous financial results presentation in August 2008," Toyota Vice President Mitsuo Kinoshita said.

"No one knows when the economy will stabilize," he continued. "We believe that the automobile industry will find an opportunity to regain its momentum if the US economy rebounds. We would like to believe that the automobile industry will see an upturn sometime in late 2009."