Japanese car maker Toyota sees solid recovery in Q4 | WPN World People News

Car maker Toyota Monday said its January-March profit more than quadrupled to $1.5-billion, signalling a solid recovery from the losses it suffered due to a series of disasters in Japan last year.

For the full year, the earnings fell 30 per cent to $3.5 billion, as Japan grappled with disasters and a strong yen as the Japanese currency rose by as much as 10 per cent against the US dollar between April 2011 and February 2012.

Upbeat with its performance in the fourth quarter, the firm has forecast a net profit of $9.5 billion in the current financial year.

"Our vision is to establish a strong business foundation that will ensure profitability under any kind of difficult business environment," Toyota President Akio Toyoda said in a statement.

The firm struggled in the last 12 months due to many factors including natural disasters.

The earthquake and tsunami in Japan last year disrupted the car maker's supply chain. This led to a halt in production in Toyota's factories both at home and abroad, damaging its sales as customers had to wait for longer periods to get the delivery of their cars..

Floods in Thailand also hurt its production later in 2011.

But the car maker claims that its production has returned to normal levels and has increased its sales, especially in the US, which is one of its biggest markets.

Toyota said it is expecting to sell 8.8 million vehicles in the current financial year, which is 18 per cent more than last year.

Source: Southeast Asia News.Net