Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM) said Friday that it expects its annual profit to drop 31 percent, as the world’s largest automaker works to restore output which got affected after Japan’s biggest earthquake on record disrupting car productions and slashed sales and a strengthening of yen also affecting overseas earnings.
Toyota Motor Corp. had not announced an earnings forecast earlier because of uncertainties about its production outlook after the March 11 disaster in Japan. However, Toyota on Friday forecast a $3.5 billion (280 billion yen) profit for FY 2012, down from $5.1 billion (408 billion yen) for the previous financial year.
The company said that most of its earnings are expected to come in the second half of the current fiscal as it is $125 million (10 billion yen) profit for the first half, compared to $3.6 billion (289 billion yen) in the same period last year.
Toyota said on May 11 that the earthquake has contributed to a 52 percent fall in profit during the last quarter, but the company delayed unveiling the annual forecasts as it weighed the impact of the disaster on consumption and its supply chain.
"We are studying production capabilities overseas. By increasing production towards the end of this year, we would like to regain market share that we have lost temporarily," Toyota's Executive Vice President Satoshi Ozawa said.
Toyota is now expecting to sell 7.24 million vehicles for the fiscal year through March 2012, down from 7.31 million vehicles in the previous year. For the January-March period, Toyota sold 1.79 million vehicles worldwide. That is fewer than the 2.22 million vehicles GM (NYSE: GM) sold and fewer than No. 3 automaker, Volkswagen AG of Germany, at 1.99 million.
Shares of Toyota last traded at $81.92 gaining 0.21 percent on Thursday.
