On November 6, Toyota announced that its second fiscal quarter (July to September) net sales of 11.4 trillion yen, basically unchanged from the same period last year; operating profit of 1.16 trillion yen, a year-on-year drop of 19.4%, lower than the same period last year of 1.44 trillion yen, but also lower than analysts’ average estimate of 1.25 trillion yen; net profit of 573.7 billion yen, compared to the same period a year ago 128 million yen almost cut, down 55%.
In the first half of the fiscal year (April-September this year), Toyota’s revenue rose 5.9% year-on-year to 23.28 trillion yen; operating profit fell 3.7% year-on-year to 2.46 trillion yen; net profit decreased 26.4% year-on-year to 1.9 trillion yen.
Although Toyota’s latest results were dragged down by the Japanese and Chinese markets, the company kept its full-year operating profit forecast (4.3 trillion yen) unchanged, showing that its business may be recovering from scandals in Japan and a massive recall in the United States.
Last quarter, Toyota’s global car sales were hit by weak demand for new vehicles, while domestic and international regulatory investigations and recalls led the company to cut its global production. In the Japanese domestic market, Toyota’s sales fell due to the recall of the Prius model. Meanwhile, in the Chinese market, Toyota struggled with fierce competition from local Chinese carmakers, which also led to a decline in the company’s vehicle production.
The company lowered its sales forecast for fiscal year 2025 (April 1, 2024 to March 31, 2025) to 10.85 million units from 10.95 million as a regulatory scandal involving falsified vehicle safety certifications negatively impacted Toyota’s output.
Toyota CFO Yoichi Miyazaki said the company will return to annualized production of 10 million units in the second half of FY2025.Yoichi Miyazaki said, “Going forward, we will assess the impact of the safety certification issue on our manufacturing processes and, at the same time, revisit our production processes. ” Yoichi Miyazaki also said that Toyota aims to launch vehicles tailored for the Chinese market in the next two to three years.
Shares of Toyota Motor rose 1.7% after the aforementioned earnings report, and the stock is up 3.6% so far this year.