Toyota Motor Corp reported on May 09 another year of record earnings, becoming the first Japanese company ever to post an operating profit of more than two trillion yen thanks to brisk sales overseas.
But Toyota, which recently overtook US rival General Motors as the world's top selling automaker, was cautious on the outlook for the current year, predicting only a slight gain in earnings to another all-time high.
Net earnings rose 19.8 percent to 1.64 trillion yen (13.7 billion dollars) in the year to March, helped by a weak yen, Toyota said in a statement.
Operating profit gained 19.2 percent to 2.23 trillion yen while revenue increased 13.8 percent to 23.94 trillion yen. "Toyota posted record consolidated results across the board," said group president Katsuaki Watanabe.
"We believe our continuous efforts to support global growth have steadily contributed to our record net revenues, operating income and net income," he said in the results statement. Toyota sold 8.52 million vehicles in the year, up 550,000 from the previous year. It expects to sell 8.89 million vehicles in the year to March 2008.
North America remained the key driver of growth, with vehicles sales there rising 386,000 to 2.94 million due to strong sales of the redesigned RAV4 and Camry, and the new FJ Cruiser and Yaris models.
In contrast, sales in Japan fell 91,000 to 2.27 million vehicles. Toyota said it expects only a modest rise in earnings in the year to March 2008 due to an expected strengthening of the yen and slower sales growth.
It forecast net profit of 1.65 trillion yen, operating profit of 2.25 trillion yen and revenue of 25.00 trillion. "We aim to exceed last year's earnings by increasing sales volume and reducing costs while investing for future growth," Watanabe said.