Welcome to Gaia! ::

Toyota reveals first annual loss in years
By Jonathan Soble in Tokyo

Published: May 8 2009 07:21 | Last updated: May 8 2009 09:31

Toyota Motor revealed a Y766bn ($7.7bn) net loss for the quarter to March on Friday – a bigger deficit than US rival General Motors’ – and warned that it would remain deeply unprofitable in the current financial year.

The automaker, which like other Japan-based manufacturers has been hurt by a stronger yen as well as plunging worldwide demand, said it expected to sell 6.5m cars and trucks in the year to March 2010, a million fewer than last year.

Just a year ago Toyota was celebrating record profits as it climbed past GM to become the world’s largest car producer, a position it has kept only thanks to even sharper declines in sales and output at its teetering US rival.

The size of Toyota’s projected net loss this year, at Y550bn, took analysts by surprise. Its Y437bn loss for the full year to March – the first for the company since a crisis following the second world war – was also larger than expected. Toyota itself had warned of a Y350bn deficit.

Toyota’s performance compared unfavourably with that of Honda, its smaller Japanese rival, which lost Y1.9bn in the latest quarter but expects to make money this year because of its focus on better-selling compact cars and motorcycles. GM lost $6bn in the quarter and Ford reported a $1.4bn loss.

GM warned this week that prolonged uncertainty over its financial condition risked creating a ”vicious circle” of falling sales and production of its cars.

TORRANCE, Calif. (June 2, 2009) – Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc., today reported that May vehicle sales hit a new monthly high for the year and jumped 20.6 percent compared to April 2009. Sales of 152,583 vehicles trailed year ago levels and were down 38.4 percent from last May, on a daily selling rate basis.

TORRANCE, Calif. (May 1, 2009) – Toyota Motor Sales (TMS), U.S.A., Inc., today reported month-end sales of 126,540 vehicles, a decrease of 41.9 percent from last April, on a daily selling rate basis.

The Toyota Division posted April sales of 112,345 units, a decrease of 42.2 percent from the same period last year. The Lexus Division reported April sales of 14,195 units, a decrease of 39.2 percent from the year-ago month.

Ford Motor Co. reported a 32% drop in U.S. vehicle sales for April, but the healthiest of Detroit's auto makers outsold Toyota Motor Co. for the first time in at least a year.

The Japanese auto maker's U.S. sales fell 42%. General Motors Corp. said its sales fell 33% last month, however the auto maker noted that shipments were up significantly from March.

"We see that stabilization, along with the firming up of our fleet business and improvement in Silverado and Sierra sales, as an encouraging sign," said Mark LaNeve, GM's North American sales chief.

Industrywide auto sales have tumbled since September as the U.S. recession took hold. The Commerce Department reported Thursday that consumers cut their spending in March as incomes declined, although a drop in new jobless claims offered some hope that the labor market is stabilizing.

"We continue to operate in a very challenging economic and competitive environment," said Ken Czubay, Ford vice president of sales and marketing.

GM sold 172,150 vehicles in the U.S. in April, down from 257,638 a year earlier. Its car sales fell 41%, while sales of light trucks – which include sport utility vehicles, vans and pickups – fell 27%.

Ford said in April it sold 133,979 light vehicles in the U.S., down from 195,665 a year earlier, but the company said it is gaining market share.

Ford, Lincoln and Mercury car sales dropped 31% despite record sales of its Fusion sedan. Sport-utility vehicles continued to tumble, falling 61% in April. Sales of pickups and vans dropped 36%.

Toyota sold 126,540 vehicles in the U.S., as both car and light-truck sales fell more than 40%.