Toyota Motor Corp on Wednesday raised its operating profit projection to ¥2.2 trillion ($22.3 billion) for the current financial year on a weaker yen and robust sales in the United States.
That is 66.7 percentage points more than the operating profit of ¥1.32 trillion for the previous financial year, and approached its record ¥2.27 trillion in operating profit posted in fiscal 2007.
Japan’s fiscal year runs to March of the following calendar year.
“In addition to the impact of the weaker yen, operating income increased due to our efforts with our suppliers and distributors for profit improvement through cost reduction and marketing activities,” Toyota vice president Nobuyori Kodaira said.
The nation’s largest carmaker also revised up its net profit forecast to ¥1.67 trillion for the year to March 31, 2014, from an estimate of ¥1.48 trillion three months ago. Sales were predicted at ¥25 trillion, up 4.2 per cent from the prediction in May.
For the July-to-September quarter, Toyota posted a net profit of ¥438.4 billion, up 70 per cent from the same period last year.
It also booked an operating profit of ¥592.1 billion in the quarter, up 73.8 per cent from a year ago, while sales rose 16.2 per cent to ¥6.28 trillion.
Toyota and its subsidiaries sold 7.41 million vehicles in the January-to-September period, making it the world’s top-selling carmaker.
The group’s overseas sales rose 3.3 per cent from a year earlier to 5.66 million units in the period despite slowdowns in some emerging economies.
Sales in the United States grew 8.1 per cent to nearly 1.7 million units for the same period, while domestic sales fell 8.9 per cent to 1.75 million units for the nine months.
The yen has lost about 23 per cent in value against the dollar for the past year. The depreciation of the currency makes Japanese products more competitive overseas and improves repatriated earnings.
Shares in Toyota closed up 0.47 per cent on Wednesday ahead of the earnings report, which was released after the markets closed.