Toyota Motor is expected to report a small quarterly profit increase. However, the costs of parts and materials are soaring, which has already offset the benefits of the plunging Japanese yen. The increase in profits appears to be shaky as the world’s biggest automaker by sales said that its reproduction rebounded by 30% this quarter. Further warned that the shortages of semiconductors and other components.
If there is a gradual improvement in the auto chip shortage situation, that is expected to help raise output in the second half of the current fiscal year. However, investors’ focus is expected to shift to the demand outlook and also any other disruptions in the production and strategies by the company. An analyst at UBS Securities Japan, Kohei Takashi said, “The point to look out for is why there has been such a gap in the supply chain process.” Further added, “It has been too long for the same reason, so something new must be emerging.”
Toyota warned earlier this month that it is unlikely to meet its 9.7 million vehicle production goal for this financial year due to a scarcity of chips. It did not provide a new forecast. The company is expected to report a 3% increase in July-September operating profit to 772.22 billion yen ($5.3 billion), its highest since the December quarter, according to the average estimate in a poll of 12 analysts by Refinitiv.
Production
It will be the first profit increase in three quarters and mark a big improvement from a sharper-than-expected 42% plunge in June quarter profit, partly helped by the yen which has further extended its loss. The yen plunged around 30% this year against the U.S. dollar, boosting the value of Toyota’s overseas sales. Toyota adjusted its yen forecast for the year to 130 yen from 115 yen following the first quarter results, but the currency is now trading much lower at around 146 to the dollar.
The benefits of the cheap yen have been offset by soaring input costs. Toyota estimated in August material cost for the full year to be 1.7 trillion yen, a 17% increase. Toyota’s shares are down about 2% this year, compared with the roughly 4% drop in the Nikkei average. Toyota and its major Japanese rivals, Nissan Motor and Honda Motor, are also grappling with longer-term challenges including their slow push into electric vehicles. Just a year into its $38 billion EV plan, Toyota is already considering rebooting it to better compete in a market growing beyond its projections, Reuters reported this month.
