Japanese car manufacturer Toyota recorded a net profit of 2.32 billion yen (17,560 million euros) between April and December, 57.8% year-on-year more, despite supply problems and higher material prices. The Japanese automotive company increased its operating profit by 67.9% in that period, the first nine months of the Japanese fiscal year, to 2.53 trillion yen (19,190 million euros), according to its financial report published this Wednesday.
Toyota’s sales turnover grew by 19.2% in those months, to 23.28 billion yen (176,390 million euros), an increase that the company attributed to promotional and marketing efforts to strengthen sales from its dealers. and suppliers, and the “greater appeal” of their products.
Toyota sold 6,096,000 group vehicles (including those of its Hino and Daihatsu brands) in the nine months to December, 12.1% more than in the same period of 2020. Adding the models of its high-end brand Lexus, sales were 7,155,000 units, an increase of 7.9% year-on-year. Of the total number of vehicles sold in those months, electric vehicles accounted for 27.7%, according to the report. The automaker highlighted the favorable impact of currency exchange and the increase in sales volume in all its markets except Japan, where they fell 5.7%. The increase in sales in the North American market, the largest for the manufacturer, was 7.2% with more than 1.8 million cars sold; while its sales in Europe grew by 11.9% (760,000 units) and in the rest of the Asian market, by 31.8% (1,118,000 units).
For its entire fiscal year, which will close on March 31, Toyota decided to maintain its net profit forecast (2.49 trillion yen/18,870 million euros, 10.9% more) and operating profit (2 .8 trillion yen/2,120 million euros, 27.4%), but lowered his estimate on sales. Toyota expects to record sales of 29.5 trillion yen (223.6 billion euros) in the 2021 financial year, a figure that would be 8.4% more than a year earlier, but which is 1.6% lower than the previous year. estimated in its previous report from last November. This would be mainly due to a cut in its forecast for vehicle sales, which has been lowered by half a million units to 8.5 million (for its joint sales with Lexus), “due to uncertainty about the spread of covid-19 and the shortage of semiconductors,” explained the company, which has been cutting production due to supply problems.