Toyota Motor Corp slumped to its first quarterly loss in two years after the March 11 disaster virtually halted production, and the Japanese auto giant warned the stronger yen was hobbling it in the battle against South Korean rivals. The loss was smaller than investors feared and the world's largest automaker said supply chains were recovering quickly, enabling it to raise its full-year operating profit forecast by half, to 450 billion yen ($5.9 billion).
Toyota's annual operating profit forecast, which excludes earnings from China, is up from previous forecast of 300 billion yen but still short of the 530 billion yen consensus in a poll of 20 analysts by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Toyota said it now assumes a dollar rate of 80 yen instead of 82 yen this year and the euro at 116 yen instead of 115 yen. On Tuesday, the dollar was trading around 77.35 yen while the euro was around 110.25 yen.
Toyota made a first-quarter operating loss of 108 billion yen ($1.4 billion), swinging from a 211.7 billion yen profit a year earlier. The loss was better than the average loss estimate of 190 billion yen in a survey of six analysts by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.