Profit slump at Toyota
Toyota forecast a larger-than-expected 35 per cent fall in annual profit yesterday and warned the strong yen was making it difficult to justify keeping production in Japan.
The world’s largest automaker has struggled to restore output after the March earthquake rocked northeastern Japan and forced Toyota and other Japanese automakers to slash output at home and abroad. Toyota said it was looking to ramp up output overseas to claw back lost market share and reiterated its plan to restore output to pre-quake levels by November, helped by a recovery in the supply chain for key parts.
“Once our product supply is back to normal, we can compete with no problem,” Toyota’s executive vice president, Satoshi Ozawa, said.