Toyota, which posted a record loss for the fiscal year that ended in March, said losses in the last three months were smaller than expected thanks to stringent cost-cutting and a decline in inventory.
Government stimulus measures aimed at spurring purchases of low-emission vehicles in Japan and elsewhere provided somewhat of a boost, leading the company to revise upward both its sales and earnings forecasts for the full year. But sluggish sales in the United States, the company’s biggest market, as well as a stronger yen, which erodes the value of overseas earnings, cut into its bottom line.
Toyota sold 1.4 million automobiles globally in the quarter, 56 percent fewer than a year earlier. Vehicle sales in North America dipped 47 percent to 387,000.
Net sales for the April-June period dipped 38.3 percent from the same period last year to ¥3.836 trillion, contributing to an operating loss of ¥194.9 billion.
“Although we were able to make certain improvements in fixed cost and cost reduction efforts, the decline in vehicle sales and the appreciation of the Japanese yen had a severe impact on our earnings,” Toyota Senior Managing Director Takahiko Ijichi said in a statement.
Toyota has been hammered by the global economic slowdown just as it was expanding its lineup and had forayed into new markets.
For the first time, the company is moving toward closing a major auto assembly plant — New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. in northern California — after General Motors, its joint venture partner in the factory, pulled out of the arrangement.
A bright spot for Toyota has been its new Prius gas-electric hybrid, which has been the best selling car in Japan for two straight months, buoyed in part by government tax breaks on “green” vehicles.
Akio Toyoda, grandson of Toyota’s founder, took the helm of the company in June and has reshuffled top management — including appointing a new North America chief — in a bid to get the company back on track.By HIROKO TABUCHI
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